The Plan
by thestupidgenius1123
Summary: Jeb shook his head. "The game is not over, Max. But I can tell you this: you and the flock have reached a checkpoint, and from here on out, the entire game changes." FAX. Post-Fang. [Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. All rights reserved to James Patterson. No infringement or copyright intended.]
1. Chapter 1

**The Plan**

**I'm, like, five days early. Merry Christmas, bitches. (Technically Merry Christmas Eve. Or, whatever else you celebrate. Y'all rock an insane amount.)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. All rights go to James Patterson. Certain excerpts or situations from the book **_**Fang **_**are used in this story. All rights **_**still **_**go to James Patterson, since he's the incredible genius who came up with Maximum Ride in the first place. We clear?**

**A/N: So, when I first came up with this idea, I got really excited. I've never seen anyone with a story like this, so…as far as I know, this is the first time it's been done. Hopefully. **

**WARNING: Iggy and Ella are already all cutesy with each other. EGGY AHEAD. Not too much, though, because my real passion is Fax. Obviously.**

**Summary: Jeb shook his head. "The game is not over, Max. But I can tell you this: you and the flock have reached a checkpoint, and from here on out, the entire game **_**changes**_**." FAX. Post-**_**Fang**_**. **

**NOTE: This story picks up right after chapter 84.**

**NOTE: I took out the part about the lizard dude. Like, what the heck? Did that even make sense? **

**Here's the excerpt from **_**Fang**_**: **

_**Then a couple of my nerves started firing again, and my muscles unfroze.**_

"_**Fang! Come back!" I started pulling his hair. Shaking his head and shoulders. Hard. "Wake up! Snap out of it! You stupid jerk! I am going to kill you if you die on me!"**_

_**I put my mouth right up to his ear. "Did you **_**hear me**_**?" I was yelling right into it. "Dying is **_**not **_**on the agenda! Not part of my plan!" **_

_**That wasn't working. I pounded on his chest. "Get **_**up**_**! After everything we've been through, are you going to give up now? Are you that much of a wuss? We need you, you butthead! **_**I **_**need you. I - I **_**love **_**you, Fang." **_

_**I was choking on dry sobs now. "Did you **_**hear **_**that? Why didn't I tell you before? You can't die before I tell you that. You **_**can't**_**!" **_

_**Gulping, I looked around wildly, as if I would see something marked "Second chances. Use sparingly." All I saw were a bunch of unconscious guards [and] bloody bird kids. **_

_**And a large hypodermic needle, on the stand holding medical equipment next to Fang's bed. The tube was marked "Adrenaline. Dangerous."**_

_**I reached for it. I had seen this movie once-**_

"_**I tried that!" said Dr. Disaster, who was tightly in Dylan's grip. "Don't you think I tried that? I shot it into his IV! It did nothing!"**_

_**In a split second I grabbed the hypo, whirled, and sank the needle deep into Fang's chest, directly into his heart. I pressed the plunger home, emptying its entire contents. If he had any chance at all, this was it. And if it wouldn't save his life, then it would surely end it once and for all, right now. **_

_**Being a leader means you have to make life-or-death decisions sometimes. And I made this one. **_

_**Time became elastic, stretching out endlessly. Each second seemed to take hours. Everyone was moving in slow motion, all blurry, all dreamy. I couldn't understand what they were saying. I saw Nudge and Angel hugging. Angel was crying. **_

_**One by one they turned to look at me and Fang, concern and pain on their faces. **_

_**I looked down at Fang, at that smooth, tan place on his neck where his pulse should have been beating. I squeezed his cold hand hard, willing him to squeeze back. I dropped my head to his chest and closed my eyes so I wouldn't have to see the machine flatlining in front of me.**_

**Fang, come on, **_**I thought. **_**You promised you would never leave me. You promised. **_**I gulped again, hearing nothing, feeling nothing under my ear. **_**This can't be, can't be, can't be…Oh, God, help me, help me…**

_**My mind was starting to completely shut down in order not to feel the pain, when I heard a **_**beep**_**. **_

_**Then another **_**beep. **

_**Then I felt Fang's chest rise as he gasped in a breath, and I felt his heart beat, right under my cheek. **_

_**I bolted upright, staring at his face. His mouth opened. His good eye widened. I grabbed his hand in both of mine and clasped it hard against my chest. I couldn't say anything, could only stare at the poor, battered face I loved so much. Fang blinked hazily and breathed in again. His gaze fell on me, and I must have looked wild with panic and misery. **_

"_**Fang?" I gasped.**_

_**He blinked, tried to swallow. "'Ssup?" he said groggily.**_

_**I'm pretty much the stoical school of emotiveness, but everything I was feeling burst through me like a flood through a dam. I dropped my head back onto his chest and sobbed. **_

MAX

The relief drowned me like a tidal wave.

The limp fingers I was clutching to my chest curled around my hand. Fang's chest began rising and falling a bit more evenly. His other hand reached up and stroked my hair while I closed my eyes and pressed my face into his shirt and thought, _That was so close. _

Too close.

Life was flooding back into him and I could feel it pulsing under his skin and I thought _thank you, thank you, thank you for letting me keep him. _

I forced myself to stop sobbing. I could do that later, when I was crumpled in a ball in the shower, wallowing in my stressed and miserable emotions. Not while I was standing in the middle of a room full of my would-be flock, who were currently staring at Fang and me in surprise. Fang because he'd just resurrected from the dead and now _he _was comforting _me_.

Me because…

I raised my head from his chest, feeling my cheeks flame up with anger and humiliation. I put my hand to his neck and pinned him to the table, staring at him furiously.

"I should kill you!" I blubbered.

"Wouldn't that be redundant?"

And then he smiled crookedly at me, that stupid, stupid idiot, and I choked back another sob. I slipped my hand around the back of his head, grabbed his hair, and kissed him, hard. Like a punishment. Then I yanked away from him, but stayed close enough that I could feel his breath on my face, a constant reminder that I wasn't hallucinating and he was really alive. I put my hand on his cheek.

"How many times do I have to save your life for you to get it? God. Quit trying to die."

Fang stared at me for a second. Then, I became aware of the other five people in the room. I shared my little moment with Fang, then turned around to see them still staring, quite shocked.

"Well, _that _was intense," I muttered.

Understatement of the millennium.

They just gaped at me. By the look on all of their faces, I knew they knew. I'd used the _l _word, and it had _not _gone unnoticed. I'd just admitted that I loved Fang, and that was serious shit. I mean, I hated PDA and admitting my feelings - these kids totally knew that. But they also weren't stupid - they knew that in the past few weeks, whenever Fang and I "went flying", we'd really been really making out somewhere they couldn't interrupt us. Obviously _something _was going on between us. But love?

I crossed my arms. With one look, they all knew to keep their traps shut. The last thing I needed was them telling Fang that I was in love with him. I narrowed my eyes into daggers just so I was sure they got the picture.

Well, almost all of them got the picture.

"_Love_?" Iggy repeated skeptically, his eyes wide in disbelief. As if, _how could this possibly get more complicated_? I wanted to smack him. "_Love_-love?"

Bleepin' blind kid.

I turned into a fire truck, brand new red paint job and all, while Nudge dove at Fang and wrapped him in a hug. He hugged her back weakly, but his eyes were locked on me. I wanted to look away, I really did, but I couldn't. He shot an unholy smirk at me and I grinded my teeth.

"Yeah, yeah, you missed quite a bit," I mumbled.

"Sounds like it."

I sneered at him, and for a second things felt a little normal.

Oh, jeez. Look at me, starting a story and totally skipping over the _delightful _introduction.

I'm Maximum Ride. I honestly don't care who you are. As of a few days ago, I'm fifteen. And my family is falling apart. Obviously, as the oldest and the leader (and the coolest; let's not forget that), I can't keep sitting around, watching my flock crumble. I am supposed to keep us strong, keep us motivated - keep us together…_usually_.

Usually.

But, my 'usually' has changed quite a bit over the years. When I was eight, it was usual to be tested on and experimented on every day, only to be returned to my medium-sized dog crate. When I was thirteen, it was usual to wake up and drill survival skills and training techniques into the other kids' heads.

And, now that I'm fifteen and the apocalypse is practically breathing down my neck, my usual is to try and keep us on all task and not at each others' throats.

Quite frankly, I'm not sure keeping us all together right now is the best executive decision.

Seeing Fang almost die had made them realize how stupid they all were for trying to get rid of me. I was still pissed, still not able to really trust any of them, and still really worried about Fang. In fact, when I'd automatically picked up my leader roll again and told them to follow me so we could find a hotel, no one questioned. They all just followed me with their tails between their legs, not meeting my eyes. The remorse was rolling off them in waves. Good riddance.

After they were all asleep, Fang and I went flying. We landed in a tree and talked for awhile - mostly about what the next step would be for the flock. And then, Fang leaned in close to me and said, "Guess Angel was right. I was the first to die."

There was so much I felt like I needed to say. Instead, I picked at the bark of the tree I was perched in and stayed silent. Then, Fang said nonchalantly, "So, anything interesting happen while I was _gone_?"

Gone as in dead. Interesting as in me, declaring my love. I shook my head.

"Nope. Same old, same old."

Fang smirked.

"Fang, I-"

"No, no, Max," Fang said. "You don't need to admit your undying, hot, passionate love for me twice."

I glared at him. He jumped over to my branch and leaned in close to me, his eyes twinkling.

"Actually," he said, tapping his chin, "one more time couldn't hurt."

I gritted my teeth. He chuckled, knowing he was digging under my skin. He grabbed my face and kissed me.

When he pulled away, he said, "You're not so bad, yourself."

I glared and shoved him with all my pent up embarrassment and frustration. He grabbed onto the branch and pulled himself steady, then said, "Max, you know I'm kidding."

"Well, I don't think it's funny."

Fang rolled his eyes and pulled me against him again, this time lifting me completely off the branch. He balanced us easily by extending his wings, then wrapped his arms around me and held me in his lap. A very intimate position in a very private location. I blushed.

"I love you, too. You know that."

I didn't, but I smiled when he said that, even though my smile was pressed into his shoulder and he couldn't see it.

"So," he said, clearing his throat. "Back to our conversation, before you got all blubbery on me…"

I glared a special glare, just for him. It said, _I don't want you to die again, but go get hit by a bus. _He rolled his eyes. I shifted out of his arms and backed up against the trunk again, looking at him.

"I don't think it's smart for us to all be together right now."

When I told Fang this, he told me I was being ridiculous and that I was just stressed - we _had _had a tough day. I mean, just hours ago Fang had been declared dead in a crazy psycho's lab. After he'd woken up, everyone was in shambles. The others had just kicked me out days before, and now this happened to Fang?

The blows just kept coming.

But for some reason, I took this crazy idea and rolled with it. After a minute of brainstorming, I said, "I have an idea."

Fang watched me questioningly.

"What if," I said slowly, "we split?"

Fang's eyebrows drew together with thought. "We can't just ditch them. You see how good that turned out? Jeb got shot and I died."

I smiled lightly at that. "No, what if the flock splits up?"

Fang stared at me like I'd just bitten off his arm. While yodeling. And juggling torches. With my feet.

"What happened to _we can never split up again_?"

I stared at him seriously. "Right now, it's too hard for us to focus. It's too hard for _anyone _to focus. A year ago, we all had the same goal; all knew what we had to do. Now Angel is power hungry, Iggy's love-struck, and Nudge wants a real life. The only one not having a complete crisis is Gazzy, and that's because he's a prepubescent boy who only cares about blowing shit up."

"_Iggy's _love-struck?" Fang inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"O_kay_," I said, feeling my face flame up. "We're also part of the problem."

"So, everyone wants different things. How is splitting the flock going to help solve that?"

I sighed. "It doesn't feel real to them, Fang. We've been chasing this save-the-world thing for a year and it feels like it'll never happen. I mean, all we've done is go on missions here and there, saving people or learning about the world. Maybe if we…split up…we'll have a motivation. Like, if one half went west and the other half went east, everyone would focus better."

"How do you figure that?"

"Well, there would be less distractions within the groups, for one. But, also, we'd want to get the mission out of the way so we could all see each other again. Like, bribing ourselves."

Fang leaned back against the tree trunk, crossing his arms. "And if we all just decide that we like it better away from each other?"

I rolled my eyes. "Then I guess we'd kiss the mission goodbye and move on with our short, lonely lives."

"I think we're stronger together."

"I don't."

Fang looked me in the eyes. "I think this is a crazy plan. I don't think the others would go for it - or even understand our reasoning. We've been together all our lives. The three days we _were _split up, it was miserable."

I chewed on my lip.

"We put them through a lot," Fang said finally. "They're just kids. All six of us, together…it's all they've ever known. We can't take that away from them. I mean, we've been trying to spring our relationship on them, and they're flipping shit."

"Which is so stupid," I fumed. "Can you even remember a time when they weren't trying to push us onto each other?"

Fang smirked. "Yeah. When none of them were born."

I bit my thumbnail, trying to think.

"What if…one of us left?" I asked softly.

Fang frowned at me. "Shut up, Max. You're ridiculous."

"They don't want me here, anyways - they already tried to get rid of me once. And it is _my _mission. Maybe I should just go and do it myself."

Fang stood up on the branch, looking out over the trees around us. "You used to think you needed us."

"I know I do," I said, standing up, too. My wings were spread behind me for leverage, but I grabbed his arm to balance myself. And, maybe because I just wanted to hold him. "But maybe this is the right thing. Just for a while, you know? So I have no distractions."

Fang didn't say anything. He turned toward me and put his arms around my shoulders.

Finally, he said, "You're stressed. We don't have to decide what to do now. Let's just go back and get some rest and talk about it tomorrow."

We flew back to the hotel and went to our respective rooms. I thought he was dropping my idea for good.

But the next morning, when I went to check us out of the rooms, Fang followed me down. He came over to me and said, "If you're stuck on this idea of removing distractions and motivating yourself to save the world…I'll leave."

"Ha, ha," I said, shoving him aside so I could get to the elevator.

Fang's expression was anything but funny. "You're the leader. You can't ditch them."

I raised an eyebrow at him. Was he serious?

"And you can?" I tested, feeling like the Fang standing in front of me wasn't the Fang I knew. "You're stupid." It wasn't the best insult, but I couldn't come up with anything better to show how I felt about what he'd just said. If he thought the flock could go on without him, he needed a sincere reality check.

"Listen. They obviously have a problem with us," Fang said with a determined look on his face. I'd seen that look a million times, when he was fighting, when he was running, when he was pulling me into his arms. Now it felt completely different. "And since you're the only person who can lead the flock without wanting to kill yourself or the others, you need to stick around to do it. They want us less distracted? Fine, I'll go. Just for a while. We won't tell them, though. We'll just stage it, make it look like I'm gone for good. And then maybe it'll sink in and they'll get their acts together so we can go finish the damn mission already."

I stepped into the now opening elevator and Fang ducked in beside me. As the doors closed, I said, "Did you get any sleep last night, or did you stay up all night making this plan?"

Fang shot me the ever-so-popular grin. "You expected me to go to sleep? Right after you said you were going to skip out on me?"

"And what are you saying to me? Huh? The exact same thing? Damn, Fang, at least let me be the one to ditch you."

Fang rolled his eyes. "You've been ditching me ever since I first kissed you, idiot."

I frowned. "Fine. But I am going to make you look like such an ass no one's going to want you back."

Fang shoved his hands in his pockets. "Except you, right?"

I smirked. "Maybe. But you want us to lie?"

"Not lie," Fang hedged carefully. "…Pretend."

Did we have to lie? If we lied and our plan backfired, the others would be furious with us for putting them through the emotional turmoil. But, if we told them, nothing would change around here. They wouldn't feel any kind of remorse or motivation.

The elevator opened on our floor. Fang and I stepped out and headed to our rooms. I grabbed his wrist and stopped him before we got there.

"We are not done discussing this," I said softly. He nodded.

Thus the plan was born.

Three days later, Total and Akila's wedding transformed into much more than a punch-line to a puppy love joke. Like, we had dresses.

I don't even know.

The only reason I hadn't put my foot down and declared this marriage stuff completely insane was because life had been rough the past few weeks, and we really needed something good to focus on.

I'd been feeling more and more nervous since Fang and I decided he would leave the flock. I felt bad about lying to the others, scared about having to be without him for who knew how long, and worried that he'd be out there on his own. I mean, Fang was a big boy, and he could handle himself, but…

I was having second thoughts. Maybe splitting up _wasn't _safest.

"Max! Have you seen my hairbrush?" Nudge came around the corner into the kitchen, where Fang and I were sitting at the counter. She eyed me, pausing to notice my tangled-beyond-belief hair. "Never mind," she mumbled. "It looks like you haven't seen a hairbrush in ages."

I rolled my eyes. Iggy stepped into the kitchen and started digging through the fridge.

"Ig, don't snack. We're eating dinner soon," I said.

Iggy straightened up. "Do I tell you how to lead, Max?"

I didn't say anything. My mind immediately flew back to a couple of weeks ago, when yes, they had tried to tell me how to lead. I shrugged off the hurt and anger. Iggy treated my silence as a _No, sir. _

"Right. And so, as I respect your territory, you respect mine. Don't tell me how to behave in my own kitchen."

He pushed the fridge closed.

"Ig, don't snack," I repeated. He threw an apple at me.

"You little-" He popped something into my mouth. Then he smirked and shuffled out of the kitchen. I caught a glimpse of his hand that was full of plump green grapes. I sighed. At least he was eating fruit. Fang picked up the apple from my lap and started eating it.

Angel and Gazzy were outside flying, and Iggy had just joined them. Dylan was trying his best to improve his skills, too, and they were teaching him the techniques we'd learned from the hawks. Nudge ran through the kitchen, pulling her poufy hair up into a ponytail as she went. Soon, she too disappeared out the door.

I smiled, watching their forms swoop and soar in the sky outside our house. It felt so weird that in a few days, no one was going to be that happy. Well, maybe Dylan would. I felt almost guilty. We would just come home from the wedding and suddenly, Fang would be gone. No sign of him, no note, nothing-

Wait a minute.

I hopped off my stool.

"Where you goin'?" Fang called.

I ignored him and went down the hall to Fang's room. I scanned it, but there was no laptop to be found. I closed his door and went to Iggy, Dylan and Gazzy's room. There, on Gazzy's bed sat Fang's laptop.

I went over, grabbed it, and carried it into my room. I sat down at my desk and booted it up.

Fang came into my room and closed the door.

"What are you doing?"

I opened a word document and tried to think of a good opener.

"Putting your writing skills to the test," I said. "How well do you think you could write a goodbye note?"

Fang's lips lifted into a small smile. I felt myself swoon a little bit inside.

Aha!

_Dear Max- _

_You looked so beautiful today. I'm going to remember what you looked like forever. _

Fang read over my shoulder. "What the hell is that?"

I rolled my eyes. "Silly Fang. It's the opener to your goodbye-slash-love letter."

I went to continue typing and Fang grabbed my hands. He leaned down and said in my ear, "No way, Max. Your plan is already making me look like an asshole. I refuse to be an asshole who also has romantic word vomit."

I laughed. "Are you kidding? If they see you've just disappeared, they'll want to kill you. But if we find this nice, loving note…well, then they'll only want to maim you _really _bad. See the difference?"

Fang rolled his eyes. "I will not be apart of this…"

So he left me and my creativity to do the task. About an hour later, I carried his laptop down the hall and plopped down next to him on the couch.

"Read it, it's beautiful," I said, reaching into his lap to grab the bag of trail mix he'd been eating. I dug through it until I found an M&M. everything else in that bag - the healthy stuff - was dirt to me.

Fang took his laptop from me. A minute later, he said, "This is bullshit. I wouldn't say half of this stuff."

"My favorite paragraph is this one right here, where you say all the things you love about me," I said, pointing.

Fang looked at me. "You mean the part where you say everything that you _think _I love about you?"

I smiled. "I'm a package. Take me or leave me."

He shook his head, his eyes full of amusement. "You get a whole letter and the others get a P.S."

"I got a little caught up in the poetic, lovey-dovey stuff."

Fang gave me a look that said, _well that sure is obvious_. I bit my lip.

"Do you hate it?"

"It's a _rough _draft," Fang said, his eyes skimming my masterpiece again. " 'I love you. I love your smile, your snarl, your grin, your face when you're sleeping.' Shit, Max. You might as well have said that I fantasize about you at night, when I'm alone."

I smirked at him. "Don't you?"

He just grinned mischievously at me. I blushed, feeling a fire ignite inside me. I cleared my throat. "Well, we can totally add that in-"

"That's enough writing for one day," Fang said, putting his computer on the coffee table.

He leaned over and pushed my hair back, planting his lips on mine. I sighed, trying to let all the conflicting emotions swirling in my head disperse. My arms went around his neck and my fingers moved up into his hair. Fang pushed me down against the couch. I felt like we were taking advantage of every second now that I knew he was going to disappear in a couple days.

"Code twenty-three!" Gazzy called. "Max and Fang, fornicating on the couch!" He proceeded to ninja roll into the room, his body stiffened in fighting-mode. He looked both ways and motioned the others inside. "Proceed with caution."

I rolled my eyes. Fang kissed me one last time before sitting up. I stared at him, laid out on the couch, legs on his lap. Nudge came over to us and reached down for the computer.

"Fang, do you mind if I-"

I reached out with my foot and slammed the computer closed.

"No!" I said quickly. "I mean, we were using it. Maybe later, Nudge."

Iggy hummed as he walked into the kitchen. "That wasn't suspicious…"

I smiled nervously and sat up, grabbing the laptop from the table. "Where's Dylan?" I asked, trying to draw the attention away from my protectiveness over Fang's computer.

"He didn't want to come in yet," Angel said, opening a bottle of water. I nodded. I got up and went to my room with Fang's computer. Seconds later he came into my room and took it from me.

"What are you doing? We need to print it. Do we have a printer or do I have to go to town?"

Fang shook his head. "I need to fix it first."

"Fine, bring it to me when you're done so I can print it."

He smirked, leaning down in my face. "Max," he breathed. "You can't _type _a love letter."

I stared at him as he left my room. Then I ran to my door and called after him, "You _are _a sap!"

**A/N: A review would be awesome. Thanks for reading! Sorry about typos. This update was very last-minute. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Update: **12/27/2013 12:45 AM

**A/N: It is **_**so **_**good to be back! Thanks to all my reviewers, especially the very first one to read and review this story: Resisting-Moonlight. You guys really shouldn't flatter me, my head is big enough as is. (But, thanks!)**

**Thanks for the holiday wishes! I spent, like, four days straight with my family. Much needed time together. It was fantastic. Hope you all had a great time, too, and that you stay safe!**

**Read ahead, folks. I am quite fond of this chapter. **

MAX

"We'll go to the School," I said, careful to keep my voice down in case anyone was still awake. It was the night before the big day, and we were back in our stilted-home in the mountains, courtesy of the CSM. I didn't think it was the smartest idea to go back - one of the first rules in Max's Guide to Survival was to never stay in a place you've been attacked before. It was kind of common sense, really. But we didn't have anywhere else to go, and we'd taken very…precautious measures. (Like, the four different defense systems set up around the perimeter, for example.)

Fang scratched his chin. The security alarm was set, the doors locked, the shades drawn, and it was about one in the morning. We'd spent the night "bonding" with the others, which meant we were really all just sitting in the same room, doing different things and occasionally talking to each other. Months ago, we used to eat a bunch of junk food and watch movies, competing to see who could stay up the longest. We'd all stay up until five or six in the morning, then sleep in a heaping pile right on the living room floor until well into the afternoon.

Things were different now.

I knew it was hard on them, so I wasn't going to blame them one bit. Besides the whole 'let's-take-our-emotions-out-on-Max's-leadership-and-relationship', I was _totally _understanding of the whole situation. It wasn't their fault they were in this life, it wasn't their fault that they never had normal childhoods. I just hoped we could get this mission over with before their adolescence was gone for good.

Hah. Coming from the fifteen-year-old, right?

But it was different for me and Fang. Hell, for Iggy, too. I just felt like we were so much older than fifteen. Like we were already well into adulthood, even though we were still so young. Even after saving the world, I couldn't imagine going to school and getting my license and being normal. It would be too…weird.

I was lying on the couch on my side, a soft afghan that my mom had given me wrapped around my shoulders and tucked underneath me neatly. Fang was sitting in front of me on the floor, his back to the couch, his legs bent at the knee. He turned his head and looked at me.

"I've been researching it," Fang said, moving his hand up to rub the back of his neck. "Nothing yet."

I closed my eyes and let my fingers twist the soft tufts of hair at his neck. His hand grabbed mine and I smiled as he twisted our fingers together.

"Tired?"

"No," I mumbled, even though it killed me to think of opening my eyes right then. Fang's thumb drew patterns on the back of my hand.

"Sure?"

"Okay, I'm a little tired," I yawned. "I'm going to go to bed."

We stayed there for a few minutes.

Finally, Fang stood up and picked me up off the couch.

"Fang, that's not necessary," I breathed into his chest.

Fang smirked down at me. "Whatever you say."

Then he dropped me onto the carpeted floor.

"Ow. That freaking hurt," I mumbled, rubbing my backside as I stood up. So much for my romantic boyfriend, being all knight-and-shining-armor-y. I frowned at him. Fang kissed my forehead and pushed me in the direction of the hallway. "Go to bed, Max."

"Want to come to bed _with _me?" I tempted, turning around to glance at him.

"So you can drool all over me and snore in my ear? No thanks. You have the worst morning breath."

I frowned, walking down the hallway with Fang right behind me. He came into my room with me and watched me crawl under the covers.

"What kind of teenage boy turns down a chance to sleep with his girlfriend?"

Fang smirked, leaning down and kissing me deeply. I was so tired that it made me dizzy, and I could only blink at him when he pulled away.

"The kind of teenage boy that knows if he accepts, his girlfriend won't get much sleep at all - if any."

I rubbed my eyes. My brain was suddenly so exhausted that his words jumbled in my head. "I don't know what you just said, but by the look on your face I'm guessing it was sexual."

He kissed my forehead again. "Night."

About seven hours later - I know, that's a long time for me - I got out of bed, and I was a complete mess. I went downstairs and saw everyone in the dining room. Iggy had made pancakes, and the majority of the house smelled of blueberries, chocolate, and sweet syrup. My stomach grumbled as I stepped off the last step.

The tension in the house had been tangible the past few days, but moments like these made all the anger and resentment seem really far away. Everyone was sitting around the table, passing food around and chatting. Nudge laughed at something Iggy said, and the Gasman mimicked his sister's high voice. She stole the pancake on top of his stack. It was a good morning.

_I don't want this to change_, I thought. I sighed. Angel looked at me curiously. "What, Max?"

I sat down next to Fang and he grazed his hand over my knee, erasing some of my nerves.

"Nothing, sweetie," I said, realizing that it was the first time in weeks I'd said something endearing to her. She looked at me, almost surprised. I smiled and she smiled back, tentative.

"So, Total, you excited for tonight?" Nudge asked. Total swiped his paw across his muzzle.

"I can't believe tonight is my last night as a single mutt," Total mumbled to his plate of pancakes that Angel must've cut up for him into neat little squares.

I smirked. "And I can't believe the boys didn't take you out for a bachelor party."

Gazzy, Dylan, Fang and Iggy all shot me glares. I covered a grin with my hand.

Total's beady eyes lit up. "What a splendid idea, Max! Who said you weren't clever?"

I frowned. "No one."

Total jumped down off his chair. "The night is young!"

"It's eight in the morning," Iggy muttered.

"Well, boys, I'm getting hitched in ten hours. We better get a move on!"

After a few minutes of arguing and threatening, the boys finally caved. I laughed as they reluctantly followed Total out the door. Gazzy whispered, "What are we even going to do?"

"Who the hell knows," Iggy breathed. I got up and walked to the door with them. Fang glared down at me.

"And you thought it'd be funny to torture us _why_?"

"Easy," I said simply. "_I _have to get my hair done."

That cleared it up for him.

About an hour after they left, my mom's friend Gina came over and turned my rat's nest of hair into a masterpiece. It was not an easy task. Or fun. For the rest of the torturously long day, the girls and I went to hell and back. By the time my mom's friend finished my hair, all I wanted to do was flopped onto the couch and take a nice, long nap.

"Max, do not mess up your hair. Please," Mom said just as I went to lay down on the soft, cushiony couch. I frowned. Just as I was opening my mouth to respond, the boys walked into the house.

"Hey!" I said, sitting up. "How was it?"

They all dispersed quickly, mumbling under their breath. Iggy "accidentally" kicked Total on the way down the hall. Total huffed and sat down next to me on the couch.

"Those boys don't know a good time when they see one," Total said.

I smirked, rubbing behind his ear. "Well, at least you had fun."

"I absolutely did!" he sighed, resting his little furry head on his paws. I got up and traveled down the hall to Fang's room. It was about five, and Fang was digging out the suit my mom had gotten him. Actually, he wasn't really digging, since the suit was the only thing hung up in his closet.

"Hey," I said, sitting on his bed. Fang turned around.

"The Art Museum."

I raised an eyebrow. "Elaborate?"

"That's where Total made us go. The fucking Art Museum."

I bit my lip to keep from laughing.

"Iggy asked Total if he wanted some strippers, which I don't see why that would interest him at all since he's a _dog_, and Total said he couldn't even think about being unfaithful to Akila. So we went to a _museum_."

"And…_that's _why you're covered in perfume and body glitter," I mumbled with amusement. Fang rolled his eyes and sat down on his bed next to me, pulling me onto his lap.

"I like your hair," Fang said, tilting my chin up.

I rolled my eyes. Just because we were dating didn't mean he had to pretend to like everything I did. We were still best friends. We were still brutally honest with each other. "Shut up."

Fang smirked. "Okay, you look like a Barbie doll."

"That's better," I breathed, leaning forward to kiss him. I don't know what gave me the courage, but I twisted fingers into his hair and wrapped my legs around him, opening my mouth against his. I tugged on his hair, making him groan, and shifted on his lap just enough to make him rethink our position-

"_What _are you doing?" Fang growled, grabbing my hips and holding them stone still. I grinned, moving my mouth down to leave a hot kiss on his throat.

"I have to give you something to miss, don't I?"

"Hm…don't tempt me."

I kissed his lips quickly. "It's so _cute _how you think you can tell me what to do."

That was all it took. Fang had me pinned to his bed in seconds, his fingers in my hair, dislodging pins and clips and ruining the work that had taken two hours. I moved my mouth against his, trying not to think that this would be one of the last kisses I got for a long time.

"When I'm gone," Fang said against my neck, "Dylan is not an option."

I pulled back and looked at him. "Like you'd know if hooked up with Dylan."

Fang's face was a picture of betrayal. I rolled my eyes, running my hand over his cheek. "I'm kidding, you idiot."

Fang's eyes bore into mine. His fingers were stroking my wings slowly. In that moment, I wanted to tell him to forget the plan - we could get through this together; we didn't need to split up. I wanted to tell him that I didn't want to do it anymore because the thought of living for even a day without him was unthinkable.

But I didn't.

"I guess Fang is going to redo your hair?" my mom asked from Fang's door as she took in the sight of Fang and I tangled in each other, my hair a wrecked mess and about 323,664,179 hair pins lying on Fang's bed.

I blushed. "Oops."

• • •

Total and Akila's wedding and reception was perfect - and rather extravagant for two dogs (but don't tell Total I said that). It was in a small reception hall nestled at the edge of town, almost twenty minutes away from civilization. The inside was draped with pristine white curtains and golden tablecloths. There was a buffet table opposite of the DJ and dance floor; a table that, I assure you, the flock and I visited numerous times that night.

Like I said, it was beautiful. I sat at one of the tables with Dylan, the Gasman, Nudge and Angel, eating my way through my third plateful of delicious food, trying not to scar myself by watching Ella and Iggy dance on each other. I guess it was kind of cute, once you got past wanting to vomit. Iggy would unglue himself from her long enough to spin her around, laughing, and she'd beam at him like he was the only guy in the room.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up, swallowing down a scoop of pasta.

"Hey," I said lamely. Fang looked like a freaking god, with his cleanly-shaven jaw and his fitted tux. I don't think he's ever been _fitted _in anything; usually we'd just guess what size he was. Can't really pause to try on clothes when you're stealing them. Obviously, we should have, though, because it totally worked for him and made him even more attractive than his usual baggy sweats and t-shirt look.

He grabbed my hand, wrestled the fork out of it, and pulled me up. He twisted my ring around my finger as he pulled me away from the table. "Want to dance?"

"Not really," I said truthfully.

Fang raised an eyebrow. "Aren't girls supposed to be into this stuff? Dress up and practically rape their boyfriend in front of tons of people?"

"One, I think you're talking about Ella, not me. Two, why would I need to rape you in front of people."

Fang smirked. "So you want to do it in private?"

I rolled my eyes. Fang had somehow driven me through the crowd during this taunting conversation, and he reached both arms around my waist and pushed open the doors to the outside. A chilly blast of nighttime air hit us, and bumps popped up on my skin. Fang ran his hands up and down my arms.

"I'd offer you my jacket, but I don't really want to help you cover up," Fang said, his lips curving up. I pecked him on the cheek before pulling him into the woods.

When we could still hear the music of the reception but were completely hidden from the other guests, Fang stopped me and twirled me around. I cocked an eyebrow at him - he was being quite the charmer today - and wrapped my arms around his neck. The first kiss was gentle and slow, full of the kind of emotions that used to keep me up at night. Now it seemed like they were sometimes the only thing that put me at ease. His second kiss was even heavier with the love and adoration. Almost too heavy. I pulled back, gripped his shoulders, and smashed my lips to his, paying an awful lot of attention to his bottom lip. We were kissing like it was the end of the world - and maybe, in a sense, it was. The end of my world, at least. For a little while.

This time, there was no saving my hairdo after our rendezvous in the woods. Fang smashed his lips to mine, crushed my body with his. I was between his warm body and the trunk of a tree, trying to keep up with his frantic lips. It was an unintelligible mess of hands and hips and mouths. His lips and tongue danced on mine, leaving me breathless.

When, finally, our hunger for each other subsided, we straightened ourselves as best we could. I rebuttoned his shirt, tightened his tie. Fang smoothed his hands down my hips under the false pretense that my dress was wrinkled. He just laughed when he looked at my hair.

"I guess…" he trailed off. I just wanted to kiss him again.

"I…" I didn't let myself say it. I didn't let myself say, _I don't want you to go. _I knew if I said it, he'd stay. And he couldn't stay.

This was the smartest decision. Splitting up for a while was a good idea. Just looking at the past few days was proof of that - I couldn't remember one day in the past week that Fang and I had kept our hands off each other. We were distracting each other. We needed this break. The others needed it. We needed to get on track and stop loosing precious time.

And, he wasn't really gone for good.

Fang gave me his lopsided smile and I wanted to cry. "I revised the letter," Fang whispered. He pushed back a piece of hair that had fallen into my face. "You'll see."

"You're making it really hard to let you leave right now," I said with joking anger.

He leaned down and kissed me again, twisting his fingers into my hair for a moment. "Go back to the party."

I stepped back. I couldn't do it, though. I couldn't just walk away, knowing it'd be the last time I saw him for a while. Fang was my best friend, you know? We'd never been apart for more than three days. I hesitated, bouncing from foot to foot uncertainly. Fang watched me for a minute. Then he sighed.

"Come here."

I surged toward him. My arms flew around his neck and my chin tucked onto his shoulder. I squeezed my eyes shut, hugging him close. Fang's arms enveloped me in a second.

"Not yet," I whispered into his neck.

"Okay," he agreed immediately, sounding relieved. He kissed my hair, his fingers rubbing the base of my wings slowly.

I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. We needed each other, relied on each other. I felt like my world was being torn in half. I felt stupid for even considering this plan. Look at me, clinging to him for dear life. How pathetic. "God, this is going to be harder than I thought."

"Do you think this is a bad plan?" Fang muttered softly against my neck.

I pulled back and looked him in the eyes. "I think it's the only plan I've got."

We couldn't keep going on the way it was. If we didn't change something, soon, our flock would completely fall apart. No matter how much I hated to admit it…we just needed to focus on the _mission_.

I could tell Fang had a lot more to say about it, but we didn't get the chance.

"Guys?"

I heard Nudge trampling through the woods, pushing branches and whatnot out of her path. She emerged from the trees behind Fang, and sighed. "Finally! Dr. Martinez wants a few pictures before we go home…what did you do to your hair? You literally look like you were mauled by an animal."

I stared up at Fang, our eyes locked. His fingers were still on my waist and he gave my hip a gently squeeze, communicating with something other than words.

"Everything okay?" Nudge asked nervously, still standing a few feet behind Fang.

I sighed and looked at her, giving her a tense smile. "Yeah, we're coming. Lead the way."

When we got back to the wedding party, most of the guests had left.

"Where's Total?" I asked, looking around. A few people were around, taking down decorations and cleaning up.

"He and Akila already left for their honeymoon," Nudge said, smiling at me. "Come here, I'll fix your hair."

She dragged me over to one of the tables yet to be moved and sat me down in the chair. She began creatively tucking my hair into a neat updo.

"Did you and Fang have a fight?" she asked softly.

"No," I said quickly.

"Okay," Nudge answered uncertainly. "You two just looked stressed."

I sighed. "Always are," I mumbled. I watched Iggy and Dylan help a few people clear away the other tables scattered about the clearing. Eventually, they came for the table Nudge and I were at.

Nudge pulled me out of the chair and spun me around. "Good as new! Now, come on."

She pulled me over to the others. Iggy and Dylan helped get rid of the last table and the mom ushered us into a group and had one of the men who'd stuck around to clean up take our picture.

Then we hit the sky, ready to get home. It was already late, about nine or ten. Mom and Ella were going to a hotel about an hour away and driving home to Arizona the next morning.

When we finally got back to the house, everyone immediately disappeared in their rooms. I went into the bathroom and dug all the bobby pins in my hair out and set them on the counter. I quickly pushed my fingers through the limp curls, making sure there were none left over, then went to my room and pushed out of the dress. I pulled on a blue t-shirt and shorts and closed my door, going quietly down the hall.

I pushed into Fang's room. He was taking off his suit jacket and putting it on a hanger. Fang wasn't one to have a very messy room. Go figure. I walked over and silently untied his tie, taking my time. Then I started unbuttoning his shirt. I didn't look at him. Couldn't.

Instead, I stared at the packed backpack by his door.

I got his shirt off. As I reached down toward his slacks, Fang grabbed my wrists. We locked eyes for the longest minute of my life.

"You…go sit over there and keep your hands to yourself," Fang said hotly, his eyes dark and expressive. I gave him a long look before going over to his bed and lying down. I pulled the blankets up around me as he pulled on a pair of sweatpants. He turned off the light and got in bed next to me, wrapping an arm around my waist. We laid in complete silence and I watched the minutes on his alarm clock slowly tick by. After almost an hour, Fang whispered, "Max, go to sleep."

I sighed and twisted in his arms, facing him. "I can't," I breathed.

"Try," Fang mumbled. He started rubbing my back and my wings. I tucked my head into his chest and tried my damnedest.

**A/N: This wasn't supposed to go up until Sunday…but I'm weak when it comes to lovely, begging readers. **

**Review please?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Update: **12/29/13 9:10 AM

**A/N: I need to stoooooop updating this so often. I'm just proud of myself for not having updated twice in one day yet. Usually I've done that, like, three times. Ha! Thanks for the reviews, guys! Seriously, I love hearing from you all again.**

MAX

"I can't find Max!"

"Have you checked Fang's room? Who knows what that sappy wedding did to their raging hormones. They probably-"

The door to Fang's bedroom burst open. I rolled over, pulling the sheets over my head.

"Go away," I groaned.

"Max! God," Nudge sighed. "You gave us all a heart attack! Where's Fang?"

My fingers clenched into fists, clutching the sheet. Good question. I sat up, pushing my hair back, looking around the room. Without even looking, I knew it would be there; Fang's letter, sitting on the pillow by my head. How could I 'find' it without being blatantly obvious? _Oh, golly, Nudge, look what I found _-

"What's this?" she murmured. She stepped forward and grabbed the envelope. When she saw my name scrawled in Fang's messy writing, her face fell. She looked at me.

"What?" I asked tiredly, rubbing my eyes.

"It's for you," she said very softly, handing it to me. I held the paper in my hands, staring down at it. He'd really done it. He'd really gone through with our plan.

"Give me a minute," I said. Nudge nodded and left Fang's bedroom. I opened the letter.

_Dear Max, _

_You looked so beautiful today. I'm going to remember what you looked like forever._

That part was the same; the part I'd written. Everything else…everything else was different.

_This really sucks. Having to be the one who messes up the system. I know we've been by each other's side our whole lives, and I can't imagine what I'm going to do without you - without all of you. _

_We need to __focus__. Something you and I, unfortunately, can't seem to do around each other. Whether you want to blame my dashing good looks or the fact that you can't keep your hands off me, well, that's up to you. _

I rolled my eyes. That idiot. Then, the next section was also one I'd written. The fact that he'd kept it made my heart swell.

_I love you, Max. I love your snarl, your grin, your face when your sleeping. I love your hair streaming out behind you as we fly, with the sunlight making it shine, if it doesn't have too much mud or blood in it. I love seeing your wings spreading out, white and brown and tan and speckled, and the tiny, downy feathers right at the top of your shoulders. I love your eyes, whether they're cold or calculating or suspicious or laughing or warm, like when you look at me. _

The next paragraph knocked the wind out of me. I hadn't written this - this…was all Fang.

_You're the best warrior I know, the best leader. You're the most comforting mom we've ever had. You're the biggest goofball, the worst driver, and a truly lousy cook. You've kept us safe and provided for us, in good times and bad. You're my best friend, my first and only love, and the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, with wings or without. _

_Max. What is it you've been telling me since day one? You have a mission to save the world. Right? Well, now I have one, too. In order for us to accomplish my mission, we can't be together - not right now. We have to split up for a while. We have to __focus__. _

_Here's my mission: We're going to do this thing, we're going to __save the world__, and then I'm going to hunt you down and find you and never leave you for the rest of my life. _

_How does that sound? _

_- Fang_

I tossed the envelope in the trash and made my way downstairs. The others were milling around the kitchen, trying to find breakfast.

"Max, what was-"

I threw Fang's letter onto the counter. Everyone looked down at it, all movement and conversation slamming to a halt. "Fang left."

Nudge gasped and grabbed the paper.

"What's it say?" Angel whispered.

Nudge started reading it softly, all the others crowded around her. I stepped into the living room and look out the window over the canyon. I could hear Nudge's voice breaking as she read it to the others, and for a second I wondered if Fang and I had done the right thing. I felt compelled to tell them all that we'd staged this so they'd get their acts together and help me with my mission.

I didn't.

When Nudge finished, they all spun to look at me in silence. Something changed, then, and there was something different in the air.

"Eat," I said. "Then pack up. We're out of here in thirty minutes."

"Are we going after him?" Nudge asked nervously, folding the piece of paper. I looked at all of them, standing in the kitchen, staring at me with the worst expression in their eyes.

"No," I said shortly. "We're going to the School."

The last time we'd gone to the School for information, it had been to find our parents.

That was a realization I had while I shoved clothes into my backpack. It was almost eleven. Mom and Ella had gone home, despite their worry about me. Because obviously I was a delicate pansy who couldn't handle a "breakup".

We'd broken into the School months ago - felt like years ago. But the last time we actually willing went to the School, we were rescuing Angel. Then, the lab in New York, we'd only searched for information about our parents.

Nothing about Itex. In fact, the only time we really tried to figure out information about Itex had been when the girls, Total and I went to Germany. That trip had only told us that the lab in Germany wasn't the main Itex facility.

Goal: Find main Itex facility.

The School had to have information on Itex. Obviously, if the flock and I were solely created to destroy it, they'd have to know stuff about it, right? They had to have the information somewhere. And, it hadn't been in the files we'd stolen from the facility in New York, so our first stop was Death Valley, California.

I zipped up my backpack. As I was pulling on my jacket, my bedroom door opened.

"Are you packed?" I asked, glancing over my shoulder at Iggy.

Iggy walked into my room and slowly shut the door behind him. He sat down on my bed.

"Nudge said you and Fang were fighting yesterday," he said.

I gritted my teeth and counted to three in my head.

"No, we weren't," I said shortly. "Did you pack or not, Iggy?"

"Yes, Max," he rolled his eyes. "Now would you talk to me, for once?"

I tried not to snap at him, I really did. But suddenly, I felt like I _had _to say _something_.

"Like you talked to me about how mine and Fang's relationship was a problem?" I crossed my arms. "Oh, wait - you _didn't _talk to me. You ganged up on me, all of you at once, and kicked me out."

Iggy rubbed his forehead.

"You stabbed me in the back," I said. "All of you. _You _picked a fight with me, Iggy. All of you _but _Fang."

I knew he wasn't sure what to say to me. Well, I didn't know what to say to him, either. If he wanted me to tell him we were all okay, I couldn't. If he wanted me to say I'd forgiven them all, I hadn't.

"Well," I said finally, clearing my throat. "We've got a long flight ahead of us."

Iggy reluctantly left my room. After a second of getting myself together, I followed, only to run right into one of the last people I wanted to be around. I looked at him, waiting for him to lecture me or something. I'd seen this look on his face before; I used to see it a million times, when I was twelve. It was the same face I'd seen whenever he knew what Fang and I were up to.

I glanced down the hall, looking for anyone who might hear us. Judging by the muffled voices, though, they were all outside.

"You and Fang rely on each other," Jeb said shortly. He was keeping his voice quiet, too, which I was thankful for.

I looked away from him, staring over his shoulder.

"Max," he said, bringing my attention back to him. "He wouldn't leave, unless you were okay with it. Unless you made him."

I bit my cheek. The fact that Jeb seemed to know Fang and I better than the flock at the moment pissed me off. The fact that he was right was even worse.

"I didn't," I said shortly, sticking my chin in the air. Jeb's eyes told me he knew different.

But he didn't push it. I knew, in that moment, that Jeb knew what was going on and he wasn't going to rat me out to the others. I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

"I trust you, Max," Jeb said. "I always have."

Yeah, well, that made one of us.

• • •

We flew for about five hours until I couldn't take it anymore. It was awkward and quiet; no one was talking. No one was even looking at each other. I knew at least half of the kids wanted to stop, but they were all too afraid to propose it to me.

I must've been sending off _really _bad vibes.

"Hold up," I said, flapping ahead and then turning around, making them all pull to an abrupt stop. "This," I said, motioning with both my hands wildly, "is not how we are going to be. You've all found a way to act completely normal in the face of death, and now Fang leaves and it throws you all out of kilter? If you don't all start acting like yourselves I will _make you_!"

I looked around, waiting for someone to say something. Iggy coughed.

"Um, can we eat?" Nudge asked finally.

Well. That was probably the most normal thing I was going to get.

"Yeah," I sighed, glancing around. Without another word, I pulled in my wings and dove downward, knowing they were all following me. Once we were all disguised as boring, normal people, we strolled into town and started looking for somewhere to eat.

"McDonalds?" Angel suggested, pointing to our right where the yellow M was visible over a couple buildings.

"Oh, great and powerful M! How we've missed you!" Gazzy cried, waving both his arms in admiration and bowing his head.

"Um, no," Nudge said shortly, which was out of character. "I watched a video on the Internet where they showed how McDonalds processed and prepared their chicken nuggets, and I think I threw up. It was so disgusting. I mean, if you think about it, it doesn't even really taste like chicken. And it's not how chicken is supposed to look, either. Are we really even sure it's meat?"

Annnnnd there she was.

"What about Subway?" Angel said.

"No!" Gazzy shouted over all the other murmurs of consent. "Not since they had the nerve to put pickles on my foot-long!"

Nudge rolled her eyes. "Quit being such a drama queen." I'd like to point out that, just seconds ago, she'd gone on a dramatic monologue about McDonalds' chicken nuggets. "You can just pick the pickles off the sandwich."

"It was a meatball sub!" Gazzy cried. "Who puts pickles on a meatball sub? That's just gross!"

"For a kid who eats out of dumpsters and knows how to cook rabbit over an open flame, you are picky as hell," Dylan muttered. Gazzy smiled modestly.

I sighed. "Anyways, Gaz, that Subway was across the country. I doubt they make the same mistake here."

Gazzy frowned. "I certainly hope not. For their sake."

"He stink-bombed the last place that got his order wrong," Angel whispered.

"Come on," I said, pulling open the door. "Behave yourselves."

I held the door for them all, watching them walk toward the counter and begin to order their sandwiches. The others seemed to be _acting _normal, at least. I, on the other hand, was a mess. My mind was wandering back to Fang more than I wanted to admit.

"Hey," Dylan said, grabbing the door from me and letting it close. "Do you want to talk?"

"No."

"You've been keeping yourself busy nonstop since this morning," Dylan said. "Let's take a second, okay?"

I stared at him, waiting. He looked at me with clear concern in his eyes and I almost threw up. Not this. Not right now.

"I don't have time for this," I said, shoving past him.

"Max."

I spun around. "Stop looking at me like I'm a sick puppy or something, I can't stand it!"

He opened his mouth, but I cut him off.

"I've spent my entire life taking care of myself. I don't see why Fang leaving should suddenly turn me into a sobbing mess."

"It hasn't," Dylan insisted. "I just didn't want you to-" He sighed. "I just wanted you to know that I'm here for you."

"That's great," I said. "Now, let's just focus on the mission. Okay?"

He looked at the ground. "Yeah, okay, Max."

Ugh. I was being a jerk. I closed my eyes and counted to three.

"Thanks, Dylan," I said, grabbing his arm as he went to go inside. "Really."

He smiled lightly at me. We joined the others inside; they'd already ordered almost twenty subs. The teenager behind the counter looked like she really hated her job. It was about to get a whole lot _worse_.

"Hi. I'm with them," I said, jerking my thumb at the others. "You might want to write this down."

• • •

"You guys know the drill," I said, scanning the perimeter below. It was about five, and the six of us were hovering thousands of feet above the School. Just looking at the boring, white building made my skin crawl. "Get in, kick ass, get out. Draw as little attention as possible. As soon as we break in, they're gonna know. We gotta be fast."

"Let's go!" Gazzy called, excitement coursing through him at the prospect of a fight. I smirked. This was the kind of attitude I'd been looking for.

The others followed me down and we landed only fifty yards from the building. The School had always been crawling with security. In order to get in, we'd either have to take down the guards and the secretary at the front of the building or crack the codes in the back exits. And, if the back exits aren't disabled before the door is opened, an alarm will go off. Which means when we break the codes, we have about two minutes before everyone is alerted of our presence in the building.

"Ig, up front, three o'clock." Iggy shuffled forward and tried his luck with the door. After a minute, I huffed.

"What's the problem?" I asked, bouncing on my toes. My adrenaline was pumping.

"Nudge," Iggy said shortly. I pushed her forward. Nudge put both hands on the door.

"Scoot, Iggy," she said. "This one's mine."

In thirty seconds, Nudge had the door open. The alarm was set of instantaneously, and we filed into the building. Dylan ran forward and ducked around the corner, keeping lookout. Nudge immediately turned to the alarm system and tried to hack it.

"I can't disable it from here," Nudge said with frustration, closing her eyes in concentration. "It probably has to be disabled from the security room. Sorry, Max."

I nodded. "Let's go, we're wasting time." We ran down the halls. Dylan called it clear, and I didn't even check to see if he was right. We were off. I scanned the scattered signs, trying to find direction.

"Left!" I said, not loudly but authoritatively, seeing the sign pointing to the left that said _Offices A488-A620_. The others followed my instructions without question.

I scanned the names on the doors. We needed Jeb's office. Obviously he was in charge of creating us and formulating our mission, so he'd probably have the most information.

"Max, here," Angel said softly. She pulled to a stop in front of office A542, _Batchelder_. I nodded.

"Nice going, Ange," I said. "Ig, standard lock. Come on."

Iggy knelt in front of the door, his lock-pick already in his hand. A minute and fifteen seconds later, we pushed open the door.

"Hello, Max," Jeb said. "You're just in time for the conference."

He stepped forward. Maybe it was because my body was wound tight with adrenaline, but I lunged forward, socking him in the eye. He hissed in a breath.

"Max, stop!" Jeb blocked my next hit, which made me furious. Just because he'd technically taught me how to fight didn't mean he was better than me. I kicked him in the stomach and he fell back, wheezing. "Max! Stop it!"

I shoved him against his filing cabinet, the one we were breaking into the School to find. I leaned down in his face. I took in a calm breath. "Why?"

Jeb took me in, then glanced behind me to survey the flock. It was almost enough to make me sock him again; they were _my _flock to check on, not his. His eye was swelling quickly, a purple bruise forming around the socket. "Because," he said. "You need me."

"When have I _ever _needed you?" I spat.

"You need my help infiltrating Itex," Jeb said calmly. "And you need information only I have."

I paused. I took a step back, curling my hands into fists. The others stood tensely behind Jeb and I, watching.

I hated this. Jeb knew it. The flock knew it.

"What conference?"

"You six, and the ten scientists, including myself, who were apart of your creation. Well, everyone apart of creating the _original _six of you; Dr. Hans is not apart of the team. It's time for us to plan your next steps."

"Oh? And why's your best friend not invited?" I asked snidely.

Jeb answered patiently, "Dr. Hans has different intentions; intentions for you six that do not fit into the initial plan."

"We aren't going to sit down and cooperate with you. I don't care what your plan is for us."

_Don't you? Isn't that what you and Fang split up to accomplish? My plan?_

I gritted my teeth, mentally throwing up mind blocks. I couldn't block out Jeb, as my Voice, but I could block out Angel from discovering what Fang and I had done.

"What have I been telling you Max? Your entire life has been training for this moment."

I almost laughed, what he said was so absurd. "I didn't even have a life!"

Jeb's eyes hardened. "You weren't born to have a normal life, Maximum. You were created for a specific purpose. I know you and the flock went through hell and back, but look at you all now. Cunning, courageous, strong. All things you _needed _to be in order to save the world."

"So, this entire 'game' that has been our lives, you're saying it's over? Is that it?" I looked at him, challenging him with my eyes.

Jeb shook his head. "The game is not over, Max. But I can tell you this: you and the flock have reached a checkpoint, and from here on out, the entire game _changes_."

**A/N: Review for drama.**

**Sneak Peek of Chapter 4: _"He's the one who did this to me, Max," Iggy seethed, his fingers tightening around the man's neck. "He tried to give me __'superior night vision.'"_**

**See? Drama. **

**Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hi.**

**In other news, The Art of Dying (previously known as The Maybe Side of Life) is coming along just dandy. So is my post-Nevermore. Read on.**

MAX

We found ourselves in a room with wide, floor to ceiling windows and a long table with about ten chairs. Probably the weirdest part about it was not being locked in a freaking dog crate, but it was still barely even the afternoon, so I wasn't going to get my hopes up.

"This is _so _stupid," Iggy breathed, his face set in a scowl.

_Tell me about it_, I thought. "Behave," I said shortly, pulling out a chair to my right for him. The rest of us all sat in one straight line, and a group of scientists followed and took seats across from us.

Never in a million years would I have ever foreseen us having a conference with the scientists at the School. Just the fact that we weren't attacking them was a shock. It was even more shocking that they weren't trying to tranquilize us. Today was just full of freaking surprises.

Once everyone was seated, I placed both my hands on the table and said, "Okay. Let's cut the shit and get right to it, huh? What's the deal?"

I was practically jumping out of my own skin. I hated being there, hating taking such a risky step without Fang. And I really, really hoped I wasn't making a huge mistake. This had been another one of my split-second, impulsive decisions, and I hoped this time it had been the right choice.

"Batchelder, I hope you know what you're doing," a woman on the end said quietly. Not rudely, per say, but there was definitely a warning in her tone. A warning directed at Jeb, apparently. The badge on her white coat said Rebecca Finley. She had a strong disposition and a stern scowl, but her eyes shone with anxiety. "Are you sure these children are ready for this?"

"You should know," Iggy said angrily. "You've only been torturing us for the past fifteen years."

Rebecca narrowed her eyes. "That was training, kid. You're welcome."

Iggy looked absolutely affronted. I put my hand on his arm, telling him to chill.

"There's a fine line between training and torture," Nudge cut in. For once, she wasn't trying to make this easy for me. Oh, wait - not for _once_. This had already happened before, when she kicked me out of the flock.

…

Okay, so I may be holding a _bit _of a grudge. Sue me. My entire family had freakin' deserted me, and that wasn't something I was about to just let go. We weren't the kind of people to get upset and take drastic measures in our arguments. Okay, sometimes we'd spar to solve problems. Oh, and that time when Fang left with the boys after an argument…

But we just aren't those kinds of people!

We work through things, we talk. The others tell me their problems and we either work it out or I tell them to suck it up and deal. They don't vote on a _new leader_.

"Yes, and that line has been crossed in the past," Jeb said calmly. "But with good reason."

"Oh, you had a _good reason _to torture us!" Gazzy said, sounding relieved. "I just thought you were being cruel for no reason! Glad we cleared that up. Anyway, is there any chance we could get something to eat in here?"

The women from the end of the table sighed. She continued, ignoring Gazzy's bottomless-appetite. Come to think of it, I was getting a bit hungry, myself. "The fact is, you six were created to work for us. That is your purpose."

Now, that I just couldn't sit with. "The fact is, _dude_, that without us, your entire plan crashes and burns with zero survivors."

"Yeah! Your plan is _Final Destination _without us!" Gazzy shouted. I raised my eyebrow at him and he shrugged. As if to say, _Couldn't hurt. _

"…So you better just chill out," I finished. I sat back in my chair and pulled my feet up, crossing my arms on top of my knees. Jeb scowled at my unladylike, childish position. Well, too bad. He must've forgotten how to teach me how to act in business meetings. I scowled right back. "Now. I'm giving you a chance to tell me what the hell your plan is and what you want us to do. This offer doesn't last forever. Either get talking or we split."

"The plan," a guy across from me began, "was for the original six of you to work towards the demolition of Itex. But, now that you and Fang brought in all of your personal issues-"

I slammed my feet to the ground, sitting up. "You have no _idea _what is going on with Fang and me!"

It kind of just slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it. All the heads swiveled to face me and I imagined punching myself in the face, because even that would be less ridiculous than _that _word vomit. The guy who'd been speaking - Mitchell Sharp, according to his badge - raised an eyebrow.

"Then where is he?"

I clenched my fists. "This…_isn't _what we're here to discuss!" I sputtered finally.

"Max, don't shout."

"Don't use Fang against me," I said, glancing between Jeb and Mitchell. "Fang…is currently out of the picture. That's what's important. He's…working on the mission from his end. Now, what's our next step?"

"Unfortunately, Itex is aware of our goal to obliterate their headquarters," said Rebecca, rubbing her forehead. It was weird; these scientists weren't acting cold and calculating right now. They were…well, they were talking to us like colleagues. They were letting down their phony, protective walls and showing us how worried they were. For now. "We need to come up with a plan, and fast. Otherwise, the By-Half Plan will be successful and the world as we know it…"

"Right. Apocalypse, loss and misery, blah, blah, blah. So, we need to somehow infiltrate the main headquarters of Itex and shut down the entire company before they can cause any irrefutable damage," Dylan said, nodding his head. "But how?"

"Shouldn't we start by slowly knocking off smaller sections of the company, first?" Nudge proposed. "Make them weaker?"

"That would give them too much of a warning," I said, shaking my head.

"Right," said Mitchell. "By the time we got to the main headquarters, they'd be ready. We need to take them by surprise."

"At least this mission is a piece of cake," Iggy mumbled sarcastically.

Another man who'd yet to speak said, "The six of you are beyond capable. We believe in you."

It happened so fast, I didn't even really see Iggy move. One second, he was sitting tensely beside me. The next, he'd flown over the table and attacked the man who'd just spoken, wrapping my both hands around the scientist's neck.

"Iggy!"

I shot forward and fell on both of them, yanking Iggy back, hard.

"What the hell are you doing?" I shouted. "What part of _behave _do you not understand?"

"Let go of me, Max!" Iggy all but snarled, his face full of fury. "This man deserves to die!"

"Why?" I demanded. _I mean, why more than the rest of the assholes in the room?_

"He's the one who did this to me, Max," Iggy seethed. "He tried to give me 'superior night vision.' How'd that work out, _you bastard_?" Iggy reached down and grabbed a silver pen from the man's breast pocket. He aimed it at the guy's eyes and the whitecoat winced, trying to get away.

"Why should you be able to see," Iggy asked calmly, his face a look of complete anger and disgust, "when I can't?"

This _teamwork _thing was off to an excellent start.

As much as I would've loved for Iggy to get back at that man, I didn't think gouging his eyes out was a good idea. Iggy might've thought that would be good revenge, but God…I couldn't let him do something so violent he might regret (though I doubt regret would've been possible). Instead, Ig was going to wreck this guy's career, and his life's work, and lock him in jail for illegally testing things on children.

Just not until we get our information.

"Take a breather," I said, pulling Iggy off the ground. "Now. Take them with you and go calm down," I said, not giving him an option. Iggy shrugged my hand off and walked directly out of the conference room, shoving two chairs out of his path and finding his way unfailingly. Nudge glanced worriedly around the room and followed him. I made eye contact with Dylan and tilted my head towards the door. One of the scientists, Mitchell, got up and walked to the door with the others. "There's a room right down here with a vending machine…"

I sat down once the door swung shut and sighed. Rebecca, Jeb, and Public Enemy No. 1 were still at the table. I squinted at the man's nametag; Oscar Petty.

"Listen," I said, holding my head. "The others and I…we're not on the best terms right now. Everyone is a little…_tense_, and right now they think I'm making a really bad choice. Maybe we should do this later, after I get the flock to see why this is so important…"

The three adults seemed to agree.

"Okay," Jeb said. "Come back and we'll reconvene."

After that, I went down the hall to a small room with couches and a vending machine. Like, a break room. Just in an evil laboratory.

I had kind of expected to see the kids chowing down; they didn't have money, but Ig could easily pick the lock and open the machine without a cent. Much to my surprise, the five of them were sitting in the room on the two couches, not eating or touching anything. I guess it shouldn't have been _that _much of a surprise; the flock and I had been tortured out of our minds here, broken and beaten, and down the hall there was a vending machine with Hershey bars and Doritos. Kind of a thought that wrecked my appetite.

When Iggy heard me come in, he was off the couch and across the room in seconds.

"This is the stupidest thing you've ever done," Iggy spat.

"We need to work together," I said shortly. I really didn't need this turning into a full-blown argument.

"If Fang was here, he'd tell you this is the worst idea _ever_."

"Fang _isn't _here," I said harshly. "And I'm the leader, unless one of you feels like having a rerun of last week's episode." I glanced around, wondering if that was the case. The others all stayed silent. "They have all the information we need. They have all the insider information. And, they've got resources and technology to help us. Maybe we've needed their help all along; maybe we were never meant to do this, just the six of us."

"I can't believe you! The girl who taught us all that these people were lesser than dirt; that they were complete scumbags, and now your actually considering helping them!"

"Yeah, Max," Nudge said uncertainly. "How are we supposed to trust them?"

"Listen, I'm not saying we put our lives in their hands," I said slowly, glancing around. "And I 'm not saying we put them on a goddamn pedestal or anything. Sometimes, you have to work with people you don't like to get things done. _This _is one of those times."

Silence.

"You're so full of it."

"Excuse me?" I spun on Iggy, fast, and zeroed in on his with a glare.

"Just because you're mad at Fang doesn't mean you need to make all of these hasty decisions. This is seriously _so _not smart, Max."

"I'm not mad at Fang!" I said defensively. Iggy raised an eyebrow.

"Right. He ditches in the middle of the night and you expect us to believe you aren't mad at him? As if you aren't planning his man-hunt as we speak?"

I frowned. I _was _supposed to be pissed at Fang, wasn't I? Damn.

"Well…What do you suggest we do, Iggy?" I crossed my arms over my chest; the question was only about 50% bitter.

"I suggest we quit wasting our time and go destroy Itex already!" he said angrily.

"Yeah? Good idea," I said. "Where is it? How do we get in? What kind of defense system do they have? Do they have experiments we'll have to rescue? Do we have the supplies needed to destroy it?" I made sure to look each one of them in the eye this time, showing that I was dead serious. It sucked, and we all didn't want to trust the scientists, but we needed their information. They had the key to success here, unfortunately.

I sighed, trying not to sound _too _prissy with my next statement. It didn't work that well. "We need to figure those things out, first. It would take us months to research it all on our own. The scientists here have everything we need, all documented neatly into a file. They're willing to give it to us. God, do you know what this means for us?"

They all sat there, waiting for me to answer my own question. Suddenly, Nudge sat up straight.

"It means we can get Fang back!"

I blinked. "Uh, right. That too." I was going more for _We'll get the weight of the world lifted off our shoulders. _Either one worked, really.

I stepped up to face Iggy. "I know we aren't on the best terms right now," I said calmly. "And I know that sometimes I ask you to do things that you don't like or don't think will work, but…just trust me on this."

"Max…"

"We don't have to hold hands and sing songs!" I said. "We just need to know what they know!"

Iggy glared in my direction, obviously not pleased. "Fine."

• • •

As it turns out, 'what they know' is close to absolutely nothing.

Seriously. We'd gone through all the trouble of getting to the School and getting everyone on the same page, and all they really had was documented research of the who, what, and why of the By-Half Plan and background on a few of the lead scientists within the corporation.

"We have theories about where the main Itex headquarters may be located, but haven't looked into them yet."

"Also," added Rebecca, "a few other scientific corporations have information on Itex. It's possible they've collected more intelligence than we have."

"So, before we make any move on Itex, we need to visit these other corporations," Dylan said. The scientists nodded.

"Wait a second," I said. "When you say other corporations, do you mean that they have no affiliation with the School at all?"

Jeb sat forward. "Correct. The School's proper name is ITMS. Industry of Technology and Modern Science. We couldn't exactly name it The Lab of DNA Splicing and Recombinant Life Forms."

"Right, that would let people on to what was going on inside…Absurd," Nudge said, nodding, her voice full of malice.

Jeb blinked and continued, "The other corporations are founded and funded separately, and we share no data with them - other than, of course, the research collected on you six and Itex. That was a plan we included other incorporations in as well, since it was such a big issue. Truthfully, the school is just a tiny part of this mission."

"Other corporations such as…?"

"One in Milwaukee, called Janding Incorporation. The director of in Milwaukee is Dr. Kate Janding. Another in Seattle, the Developmental Biochemistry Laboratory, directed by Dr. Smadden."

"So, the three of these little evil corporations went on with their own business, stealing kids and ruining lives. Then, one day, you all decided to band together and destroy a bigger, eviler corporation by stealing _more _kids and ruining _more _lives. Am I understanding this?" Nudge raised an eyebrow. I mentally patted Nudge on the back.

"We decided to put our studies to the test," Jeb said. "The six of you were not our original goal; Max just happened to be the best recombinant-life form we'd created. So we started making more. And, while we developed the rest of the flock, we still tried other combinations of DNA to see if we could make a more successful hybrid. It was all trial and error."

It was heartless and repulsive. But, it did explain why, during our childhood, we had watched an assortment of different hybrids die. They were trials, just like us. We were just…the most successful trial.

"When Max, Fang and Iggy reached the age of one, we shared the information about avian-human hybrids with the other labs, and they began making their own. Although, since you were the oldest and we needed the By-Half Plan stopped as quickly as possible, we started training you six specifically. The others were to be used for tests and back-up."

Tests and back-up. I almost gagged.

"You do know you're talking about innocent children?" I demanded.

Jeb rubbed his forehead, looking lost. "Yes, we realize. But Max, you have to understand-"

"Save it," I muttered. "I don't. But whatever. So, here's the deal. We'll go to these places, get our information about Itex, hopefully find where the main headquarters is…and free any experiments left in the labs. Sound good?"

The others nodded and smiled at me. Jeb shook his head. "Max, the other experiments aren't of your concern-"

"I'm supposed to save the world, right?" I asked firmly. Jeb nodded after a second. "Well, that means the whole world. Not the world, minus a couple mistreated _children_."

Complete silence surrounded us.

"See?" Jeb said finally, glancing to the other scientists with a proud look in his eyes. "I told you."

**A/N: Review to see Fang. **

**I want like fifty (50) reviews, but since I don't think that will happen…forty-five (45). If I get fifty, I'll just update against ****today****… But since that may not happen, next update will be Wednesday or Thursday.**

**Sneak Peek of Chapter Five: **_"I'm a man of many talents," Fang said suggestively. I couldn't help but think, __Yeah, you certainly are__. _


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Totally did not expect those reviews. You rock. **

MAX

"How's loner life?"

"Livin' the dream." Fang's voice was gruff and sardonic and totally familiar; it sent happiness and relief through my entire body, just with that one sarcastic comment. I was in the hotel laundry room, washing some of the flock's more nauseating clothes. I'd decided it was as good a time as ever to call Fang. "What's going on?"

I could picture him in my mind. Wherever he was, his eyes were constantly searching his surroundings; he looked relaxed but was coiled tight on the inside, ready to leap into action.

"Iggy's pissed at me," I said. "I _may've _arranged a meeting with the whitecoats at the School to get information from them, instead of my usual kick-ass, information-stealing plan."

"Hmm. And how'd that go?"

I was glad Fang hadn't straight out told me that was a stupid idea. I mean, at the time it had seemed risky, but in hindsight, I didn't really see a better approach at getting information about Itex.

"Fine. Oh, except one of the scientists at the meeting was the one in charge of Ig's eye surgery. That was…interesting."

Fang let out a breath. "Jeez."

"Yeah. Uh, other than that…Found out that the School was one of three different labs that gathered information on Itex and planned to ruin the By-Half Plan. One in Seattle, one in-"

"Milwaukee?"

I was silent.

Fang chuckled. "Yeah, I may've stumbled onto that one."

I raised my eyebrows, even though he couldn't see. "Stumbled onto…God, don't tell me you already got captured. It's been _one _day. Plus, I'm so pissed at you for leaving me that I don't think I want to come rescue you."

"Anonymous hit to the blog," Fang said, though I could practically hear his eyes rolling. "Someone tipped me off to 'mysterious behavior' in the Janding Incorporation. Supposedly, they're goal is to research and manufacture some kind of technology for weather, but…"

"But they're manufacturing experiments instead. Jeez, you've already got it all figured out. Guess you don't need my help after all."

"I'm a man of many talents," Fang said teasingly. _Oh, you certainly are_. "So, you guys going to Seattle?"

"Yeah," I sighed. "You already in Milwaukee?"

"I'm…in a diner somewhere in Wisconsin."

I whistled. "So, you'll have a full report by tomorrow?"

"So demanding."

I smirked. "Apparently I'm not very good at pretending to hate you."

I heard a woman asking if he wanted anything else, and Fang said no. The I heard a fork clanking against a plate. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, but I'm working on it. Just replaying in my mind all those times you were an asshole." I paused. "So, like, your entire life."

The clanking of silverware and dishes stopped for a second. "That hurt."

"I gotta go," I said.

"Max," Fang said, his voice making my stomach flutter. "Be careful. Don't do any stupid shit."

"Ditto," I mumbled. "Fang, I..." I huffed. "I just miss you, you big idiot. It's really hard, dealing with all the others without a distraction."

I know, I know. That was the whole point of him leaving - to erase distractions. Whatever.

"I can think of quite a few ways to distract you..." he trailed off.

"You're such a perv."

"Uh, I was talking about flying. You're the perv."

I smirked. "Bye."

"Bye, Max."

I hung up, shoving my phone in my back pocket of my jeans. The dryer was done, so I hefted the clothes out of the machine and into a complimentary hamper. The I lugged it down the hall to the elevator. When I got to the conjoined rooms we'd gotten, I found Angel and Gazzy already conked out in one. In the other, Dylan and Nudge were playing some card game at the table in the corner. Ig was on one of the beds, listening to his iPod. I dumped out the hamper on the bed he was on and started folding. After a minute, I threw a sweatshirt at him and he started. He pulled one of his headphones out.

"Hey," I said. "I'm sorry about earlier."

Iggy sat up. I didn't ask him to help fold because he was seriously terrible at it, but he started helping anyways. I mean, I guess he was good…for a blind guy.

"I know."

"I know it hurt, having that asshole sit in on the meeting. If it helps at all, I wanted to rip them all limb from limb, too. And I know it's personal for you, but…"

"I know," Iggy mumbled. "Gotta do what's best for the mission."

Well, that stung. Especially because that _was _what I was basing my decisions off, lately. Not the happiness of the flock, but the mission. Which brought up the whole Fang issue…

"I'm just stressed."

Iggy's sightless eyes zeroed in on me, and for a split second I wondered if he really couldn't see me. I knew he and Gazzy had been practicing helping Iggy work on his sight, and I knew that sometimes, in brighter (whiter) locations, he could see better, like in Antarctica, but technically, he was still blind. He still couldn't see. But his color skill and his on-and-off, skewed vision sometimes made me wonder if it was just a matter of time before whatever the scientists did to his eyes wore off. None of us really knew the details of what they'd done to Ig's eyes; we just knew that, as far as Jeb knew, it was irreversible.

"I was just trying to talk to you earlier," Iggy said softly. I doubted Dylan and Nudge could hear him, but they had pretty great hearing, so I wasn't 100%. "I didn't mean to piss you off. I know that…everything that's happened in the past week has really taken a toll on everyone. I know it might be hard to trust or confide in any of us since we were idiots and…well, you should know that we still support you."

"I used to know that," I said. "I'm not really sure, anymore."

Iggy's eyebrows drew together, as if I'd been the one to betray _him_. I sighed. Whether I was still mad about the whole _voting-Max-out-of-office _thing, I couldn't keep taking it out on them. I was still their leader, and I was still supposed to protect them.

"I just mean…we all want different things. We're all growing up, getting tired of the mission, and…I'm just afraid that soon, we won't want to be around each other anymore."

"We're a family," Iggy said slowly. "And, even though we fight and say things we don't mean and mess up…we're still a family."

I chewed on my lip. "I guess you're right."

Iggy fell silent. We folded the rest of the laundry. I noticed that Nudge had retreated to the other room, and Dylan was now in the shower. I looked at the clock; almost ten.

"_Did _you and Fang get in a fight?"

"Iggy-"

"I mean, if you guys fought, or broke up or something, it makes sense-"

"We didn't," I said roughly. "I promise. And even if we did, Fang wouldn't have left."

Iggy scratched his head. "But - but he did."

"We didn't break up. We didn't fight. I swear."

Iggy started fiddling with his hands; what he did when he got nervous. As if he were imagining a pair of wires in his fingers or something.

"You guys didn't do anything…_stupid_, did you?"

I didn't even know - wait, _what_?

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just ask me that question."

"Yeah, uh - yeah, good idea."

I stared at him. "Goodnight, Iggy."

"Night," he muttered.

What an idiot.

• • •

Seattle is a biiiiiiig city.

Just in case you didn't know.

"Seattle, Washington, home of who the hell knows," Dylan muttered. The six of us had had an early morning. It was about ten, and we'd just crossed the southern border of Washington state. It was _freezing_, and it was only September. I figured we had about an hour and half left of flying before we were in the heart of Seattle. Then we'd start looking for the Developmental Biochemistry Laboratory.

"How about some quick facts on Seattle?" I offered, swooping higher to catch a strong gust of cool, fall air.

"Home of the Space Needle!" Gazzy said excitedly, swooping in the air. "You know, that building that looks like it's got a spaceship on top?"

"Oh, yeah! That's so cool," Nudge said. "Anyways, all I know about Washington is that it's really bleeping cold."

"So are most of the northern states," Iggy added helpfully, and Nudge shot him a hard look.

"Can we get food before we start searching for the lab?" Angel asked.

"Yup," I said. "We'll grab something to eat then start our hunt. Suggestions?"

"Somewhere with food, preferably."

"Oh, thank you, smart aleck," I drawled, glancing over at Iggy. After our talk yesterday, I was feeling less hostile towards him. Not happy, per say, but less hostile.

"I'm here to help," Iggy said sweetly. "But really. I think my stomach is eating itself."

"Okay! Can we wait until Seattle or are you guys going to mutiny?" I joked. Then I mentally smacked myself. _Great word choice, Max. Just great. _

At the word mutiny, they all shrunk back guiltily. I sighed.

"Going down, guys."

We touched down in a small forest just on the edge of a big town. I had no idea where exactly we were, but we weaved our way out of the woods and into a small fast food restaurant without too much trouble. By the time we'd grabbed breakfast and gotten back in the air, it was already noon.

"So, what's the plan, Max?" Nudge asked over the wind, swooping closer to me. "We gonna befriend these scientists, too?"

I scanned the landscape below us. "In a perfect world, we'd be in and out of there without so much as seeing a scientist."

"And…in the real world?" Iggy asked from my other side.

I huffed. "In the real world, they know who we are. They'd probably hand over the Itex info no problem," I said optimistically, although it was a stretch. "On the other hand, they probably won't like it when we start busting all their experiments free."

"Are we just going to let them go on their own? Like in New York?"

That was Angel. I stopped flying and hovered, letting the others gather around me in a circle.

"We have to get them out," I said. "You guys know that, right? The School has stopped creating hybrids; they killed all of their experiments except us-"

"Doesn't mean they didn't try," Gazzy mumbled.

"No, you're right," I said. "They did try. But they need us, and so for now, they're on our side. At least until this mission is over. The other labs, though…As far as we know, they want to continue experimenting and testing kids. Or, they've already started killing of their experiments. In that case, they won't take kindly to us setting them free." I glanced around at all of them.

"Great," Nudge muttered. "So, we're going to add ourselves to someone else's kill list today?"

"We have to get them out of there," I repeated. "No matter what, we have to save those kids. We've all been in that situation before. The thought of leaving those kids in the labs makes me sick."

"Me too," Gazzy agreed immediately, his eyes boring into mine and shining with sincerity. "We can't let them suffer."

My heart squeezed. "So, here's what we do. We'll go in and get the information. While half of us are doing that, the other half will free the experiments. If they want to stay with us, they can. If not…"

I found myself thinking about the winged-girl and the other children who'd disappeared in New York. I wondered if they were still alive, still out there. I wondered if they were still together.

"Sounds good to me," Iggy said lightly. "So, where _is _this lab, anyway?"

"Good question." _Hey, Voice. Care to push me in the right direction?_

_When have I ever been known to give you a direct answer? _

I rolled my eyes. _That was back when we weren't working as a team. The game changed, _remember_? _

I was only about 300 percent bitter.

For a while, there was no response. I almost thought that Jeb was going to hold information from me just to be an ass, even though he knew I was right. Then, my eyes flickered as coordinates and images flashed through my mind.

I smirked. _Now, was that so hard?_

I glanced back at the others. "Come on, guys. Let's get this show on the road."

**A/N: Read and review, loves! I don't have a sneak peek...but next chapter you'll meet two OCs! They're lovely, don't worry. How many reviews can I get for chapter 6? :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: This one's kind of short. Enjoy!**

Never, in all my years of busting into illegal labs - I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of all things heist-related - have I ever experienced _this_.

When we finally spotted the Developmental Biochemistry Laboratory, I ran through the plan mentally. I figured we could breach security with relative ease, and it wouldn't take us too long to find the offices. The important part would be finding which office had the information we needed. Our best bet was the director's office - Dr. Smadden.

Anyways, by the time we'd circled the perimeter and discussed the plan, I was expecting to bust into the lab, causing the normal amount of ruckus.

What I _didn't _expect was to break in while there was _already _a fight going on. That was definitely a first for us. As soon as we got the back entrance opened and disarmed, we realized that someone had beaten us to Operation: Cause Ruckus.

Phooey.

Down the hall, a teenage girl bashed a grown man's forehead into the hard tile floor. _Damn_. His forehead split open and started bleeding. A smaller boy who looked a lot like the vicious girl was holding his own against two men in white lab coats.

"Someone took our plan!" Gazzy said, sounding extremely upset. He looked at me, like, _Max, make them stop! _And I looked back, like, _Dude, what am I supposed to do about it? _The girl looked up and her eyes locked on the Gasman.

"Well, are you just going to _stand _there?" she demanded in a shrill voice. I glanced at the others. Were we?

Then, ten scientists ran down the hall and we leapt into action. They had weapons; some kind of tranquilizer dart. I went for the scientist closest to me and attacked before they had the chance to sedate me.

The idiots had no training or fighting techniques. I figured half the building was attending to the break-in/escape, and we all easily overpowered them. After about five minutes of one-side fighting, we all stood, catching our breath in a sea of unconscious doctors.

I looked down the hall. The girl was examining the boy for wounds, favoring her right arm as she checked him caringly. They had matching brown hair and dark blue eyes. Both of them had wings sticking out of their shirts.

"Report," I said, glancing around at the flock. Everyone looked relatively untouched.

"All good," Nudge said.

"Same," Iggy said in agreement. "We got company?"

I stepped to his side and mumbled so quietly only he could hear, "Two kids. Probably related; look alike. A girl about our age and a boy about nine."

"Ten," the boy corrected. I looked down the hall at him, surprised. He had incredible hearing if he heard me whispering to Iggy.

"My bad," I said.

The girl stepped forward. "Thanks for the help. Rema," she said, sticking out her hand.

"Max."

She arched an eyebrow, shaking my hand. "In the flesh? You're famous, you know."

The boy ran forward to us and tugged on Rema's arm. "This is her? The girl Marcus told us about?"

I watched Rema's reaction. Her eyes flashed with sadness at the name, but she nodded shortly. "Must be. How many Maximum Rides are there, anyways?"

"I've only ever met one," I said tensely, glancing around. Now wasn't the time for small talk - or questions (WTF I'm famous now? I mean, besides the air-shows, famous?) We needed to get out of here.

"Do you know where Dr. Smadden's office is, by chance?"

Rema stiffened at the doctor's name. "Can I trust you, or are you going to sell me out?"

I quirked an eyebrow at her. "Do you think I'm going to sell you out?"

Rema grinned. "Nope. This way."

I glanced at the others before stepping over the scientist Rema had knocked out against the floor and following her. Might as well, right?

The boy, who I assumed to be her little brother, hopped along beside me. The others were following me closely, still watching for more scientists.

"I'm Davy," he said. "Rema and I are breaking out of here. What are _you _doing here, Max?"

I glanced down at him. His deep blue eyes were wide and studying my face. I opened my mouth, but didn't know what to tell him.

"Are you saving the world? That's what Marcus-"

"David," Rema said forcefully.

He stopped talking and ran ahead down the deserted hall. "Here! Smadden's office."

Rema stepped forward and typed in five digits to the keypad lock on the door. I raised an eyebrow. How the hell did she already know the combination to the director's office?

I wasn't going to question her now. I pushed past her and into the office, calling Iggy forward to unlock the drawers of his desk. Rema, on the other hand, headed straight toward a cabinet against the wall and started shoving it out of the way.

"What are you doing?" Nudge asked curiously, watching Rema shove her hip against the bookshelf.

"Help me," Rema said shortly. Nudge grabbed onto the cabinet and pulled, helping her move it a foot to the left. Behind the shelf had been a safe.

"How do you know all this?" I demanded, shocked.

Rema looked at me. "We had connections," she said tightly, turning to the safe again. She spit the sentence as if it tasted like gasoline, looking away from me. "Davy, what's the code again?"

"Marcus said 32-50-21."

Well, this Marcus dude was sounding more and more interesting by the minute.

Rema turned the dial. Iggy yanked on one of the drawers and it gave, revealing files galore.

As I sifted through the files in the desk, I said, "How many other experiments are there?" My mind was racing, wondering how many other mutants we'd be leaving with.

"We're the last two," Davy said. "They were going to retire us, like the others. But Marcus-" he cut off, glancing at his sister who didn't seem to be paying attention to his words. "Well, we had a warning. We're going to go find our mom and dad!"

"Iggy, next drawer," I said with frustration. "This one's a bust." He was a step ahead of me. Before I could even finish the words, he had the other drawer opened and was out of my way. I mumbled a thanks before sinking to my knees in front of the drawer, my eyes scanning the labels on each folder.

On the other side of the room, Rema cracked open the safe. She let out a tickled laugh and told Nudge to open her backpack. This girl seemed to trust us. She also seemed to think that from here on out, we were a team.

She started loading Nudge's backpack with stacks of money.

Yup. She definitely thought we were a team.

"Holy crap," Nudge said, picking up one of the stacks of twenties. "Easily a thousand bucks."

"More," Rema said happily. "And were taking it all."

"You're diabolical," Dylan commented.

"I love it," Angel agreed.

"Got it!" I said, pulling out multiple folders that said _Itex Corp. _in clear script. I shoved them into my backpack, zipping it closed and standing up. "Let's go."

Rema had emptied the safe. Nudge was zipping up her backpack; it looked ten times heavier. Dylan was standing guard at the door. The others made their way to Dylan, ready to bust out of this place.

"Wait," Rema said. She walked over to the desk, grabbed a post-it pad and a pen, and started writing something.

"We're pushing it," I said anxiously. We'd been in here for _way _too long. Sooner or later, the back-up would be after us. We needed to get out now.

Rema ripped off the note and stuck it to the open safe door. _Asshole_, it read in messy red writing. I smirked. Rema took her brother's hand and pulled him out of the room.

"Come on," she said decisively, tearing down the hallway. "I can't wait to get the hell out of here."

• • •

Rema was still holding her arm weirdly when we landed in a dense forest on the southern border of Washington.

"Let's see your arm," I said.

She huffed, pulling in her wings slightly.

"Nudge, Ig, go find some wood. Angel, help your brother start a fire, okay?"

I stepped over to Rema and grabbed her arm.

"You dislocated your shoulder," I mumbled. "It's going to hurt."

"I think I can handle it," she mumbled. I didn't wait or warn her; that only made it worse. I quickly yanked her arm back into the socket, hearing it pop loudly. She cursed quietly. I stepped back and watched her tentatively move her arm.

"Thanks," she said. "And thanks for helping me and Davy today. I don't know if we would've made it out of there without you guys."

I nodded. "I think you would've. You guys have skill."

"You too. Now I know why…why everyone was so hyped up about you. Before they started retiring the experiments, the only thing they could all talk about was you and the flock, coming to save everyone."

I frowned. Tons of experiments had died, waiting for me to save them. I felt guilt settle heavily on my heart.

"So, who's Marcus?" I blurted, trying to get the conversation to focus on anything but my sucky attempts to 'save the world'. I'm just a selfish bitch, I guess.

Rema froze. I quickly recovered, not wanting to make her uncomfortable. "Forget I mentioned it."

"No, it's just…hard. Later, okay?"

I nodded. I grabbed Nudge's backpack and pulled out some cash. "I'm going to go get some food. You guys will be okay?"

I got a thumbs up from Angel. Her brother was too focused on starting the fire to respond. Davy and Rema were sitting together, Rema brushing his hair back from his forehead. Dylan stepped next to me.

"Don't worry. I'll watch them," he said. "Be careful."

I nodded, glancing around once more. "I won't be long."

The addition of Rema and Davy to our flock was a big deal. I didn't know if they intended to stay with us permanently, or just to get on their feet. Either way, the two of them seemed okay enough, and I didn't feel like they'd turn on us. My gut told me they could be trusted.

_You _can _trust them, Max._

And so did my Voice, apparently.

Either way, I was still going to watch them. Couldn't trust anyone _too _much.

I bought as much food as I could carry and quickly made it back to the others. When I got there, they were all lounging around, laughing and talking around the fire Gazzy had built.

"Food!" Nudge shouted, getting up and running over. I started dealing out burgers and fries.

"Thanks, Max," Angel said happily.

I sat down, unwrapping a burger. "No problem. Eat up and get some sleep. We'll get out of Washington tomorrow and start digging through the information from the lab."

"So, are me and Rema going to help you save the world?" Davy asked, shoving fries into his mouth. I smiled. Davy was in between Gazzy and Nudge's age, and he never seemed to lose any energy.

"Listen, I don't want to drag anyone else into this. It's going to be dangerous. But," I trailed off, glancing at Rema. I knew she understood what I was saying; they were welcome to be apart of our flock. It was their decision.

"Thanks! That'll be so fun! Then, after that, Rema and I can find our parents. Right, Rema?"

Rema smiled weakly. "Yeah, buddy."

He grinned. I couldn't help but notice the sadness on Rema's face, though. Long after her tense smile relaxed into a peaceful expression, the pain never seemed to fully leave her eyes.

**A/N: Hope you liked it! I would love to see 75 reviews before the next update...**

**Again, no sneak peek. Sorry. Happy New Year!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: God, it's snowing its ass off out here. Been off school a whole week due to "inclement weather." Be safe, guys! **

"There's been a change of plans," Fang said lowly. I glanced down at the others, all passed out in a sort-of circle around the fire. I leaned back against the tree I was sitting in, clutching the phone to my ear and turning down the volume, just in case.

It was almost embarrassing how relaxing it was to hear Fang's voice. I guess I'd never consciously realized how much I relied on him. I mean, duh, I knew that I relied on him when shit got rough, but…just to function, day to day? Doing normal things? It was really hard to do without it.

Not that I'd ever admit that out loud.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Did you go to that-"

"Would you go to sleep already?" Fang hissed, interrupting me. He was directing the order to someone else, obviously. "You're the one who begged me to stop."

My eyebrows drew together in confusion. "Who are you talking to?"

"Like I said," Fang said gruffly. I could hear his breathing, slow and stressed, through the receiver. I could tell he'd had _quite _the day. "There's been a change of plans."

"Did you stop by the branch in Milwaukee?"

"Yeah," Fang said. "And picked up an experiment on the way."

I rubbed my face with my hand. "Who is it?"

"Brock, one more word and I'm cutting out your tongue!" Fang said furiously. I could just picture his face, ridden with annoyance. I smiled into the darkness.

"So, Brock," I said conversationally. "How old is he?"

Fang sighed. "Thirteen, fourteen? Annoying as shit."

There was a muffled _Hey! _in the background. It was followed by an _Ow!_ _Okay, sheesh, bro!_

"What kind of cross is he?" I asked, curious. There were only a few experiments that had been successful; bird-crosses being one of them. I didn't doubt there could be others at other branches - especially once they knew that the bird DNA mixed with human DNA wasn't fatal.

"Some kind of bird," Fang grumbled, sounding exhausted. "His wings are a little darker than Nudge's."

"Powers?" I started peeling the bark off the branch beneath me.

"He can make me want to rip my hair out faster than _you _can."

I grinned. "I like him already."

The was a rustling sound and then: "I like you, _too_, Max-"

There was a scuffle, then Brock groaned in pain. "You've _got _to stop punching me, man."

"Go to sleep," Fang ordered with a deadly fierceness. I smirked. There was more rustling as the phone was passed between the two of them and then Fang's voice was low and rumbly, in my ear.

"So, that's Brock."

"Was he the only experiment there, or only one that stuck around?"

"There were three. One, a girl, was furious that I'd unlocked her cage and ran off. One…" he trailed off.

I closed my eyes. "I'm sorry."

Fang sighed. "It sucks. What about you?"

"Um, rescued a sister and a brother. Rema and Davy. She's our age, Davy's about ten. They're cool, but I don't know if they're going to stick around. Davy talks a lot about their parents."

"Been there, done that," Fang grumbled. "Bird kids?"

"Yup."

"Anyone else?"

"Nope…the lab was _retiring _their experiments. They were the only two left."

"Max? Who are you talking to?"

I froze. Below me, Rema was sitting up, her eyes wide and alert. She had her head tilted back and was watching me curiously.

"Uhhh, my mom," I choked out. "Bye, Mom."

Fang sighed. "Nice save."

I disconnected the call, peeking down at Rema. "Why are you awake?"

Rema stood, shook out her wings, and flew up into the tree with me. I was kind of annoyed at her for ruining my phone time with Fang, but pushed that feeling away and told myself that this was more important.

She sat on the branch beside me, pulling her legs up to her chest. "Nightmare."

"Yeah, those are pretty common around here," I said, giving her a smile.

"Feels weird. Being out of the lab. We've been there…well, ever since I can remember. The things that happened in that place…"

"I know," I said. "We all went through it. Well, except Dylan. He…he was created differently than us."

She cocked her head to the side in curiosity.

"Um, Dylan is a clone," I said. "Technically, he's a couple months old."

Rema raised her eyebrows. "There _is _something kind of off about him," she relented. "He watches you - a lot. Almost like he's trying to learn how to be a normal person."

I shrugged. Or like his brain was programmed to love me? Yeah, that too.

"So, what's the plan for you and Davy? Gonna try to find your parents?"

Rema sighed, her eyes glistening. She put her head in her hands. I cursed myself for being so blunt with such a rough subject. I, according to Nudge, had no sense of sensitivity whatsoever.

"Sorry," I mumbled. "God, I didn't mean-"

"Davy and I were taken when I was six," Rema said slowly, watching me. I had a feeling it was taking a lot of courage for her to be honest with me. "Our parents…they're a distant memory in my mind, but…I told Davy a lot about them, just to keep him going in the lab, you know? To give him something happy to think about."

I smiled lightly.

"Now, it's all he talks about. Going to find them, reuniting. I guess I never shouldn't talked so much about them. Because, well…they died three weeks before we were taken."

Shit. Definitely a rough subject.

"They were in a car crash. We didn't really have any family, so we were put into a foster home. Orphanages…it's a little less worrying when kids go missing. I mean, they still reported us missing, but…runaways were common."

"You were _six_."

Runaways might've been common, but how many _six-year-old _runaways could there have been? How many six-year-olds took their _baby brother _on the road with them?

"Davy was only one."

"Wait, so if you were six when they took you…?"

Rema understood what I was saying. She cocked her head at me, probably wondering why she was opening up to me so much. I couldn't explain it, but something about her made me trust her. She must've felt the same way, because she shifted. She maneuvered herself on the branch so that she was facing the other direction. She raised the back of her sweatshirt and revealed her wings. Where my wings smoothly and comfortably joined to my back, hers had deep, jagged scars and puffy scar tissue.

"Grafted on," she said.

"God."

She shrugged. "I got over the pain. That's something I'm surprisingly good at; getting past the painful stuff."

I watched her. She had a confident presence about her, even though she'd been through so much shit, even though her brother talked lovingly about her dead parents everyday, even though the one good thing that came from this experience - her wings - hurt like hell every time she used them.

I knew if I'd been her, I wouldn't have been able to admit my life story a day after meeting someone. I looked down at the others and asked, "Why are you telling me all this?"

"I guess I kind of owe it to you," Rema said. "And it feels pretty good to tell _someone_."

I smiled wryly. "If there's one thing I can relate to, it's painful stuff."

"Nudge told me about Fang," Rema said, glancing at me.

I stiffened. Nudge was a fucking blabber mouth. I glanced over at Rema to see her face covered with concern. Inside, I struggled. Should I

"Yeah…things have gotten kind of complicated lately," I said, swallowing hard.

"She said you guys were really close," Rema said. "That you two were inseparable."

I shrugged. "It's what happens when you grow up together. We kind of rely on each other."

"Why'd he leave?"

I sighed. I needed to be careful here. "He said it was because he wanted to help me finish my mission. The scientists who created us…they did it so that the flock and I could save the world from a corporation called Itex."

"So, Fang left to help you?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I guess."

We sat in silence. Then, Rema said, "I know how it feels, Max. It hurts, but he did it for the right reason."

I glanced at her, wondering what she was talking about. She almost sounded as if she were trying to convince herself instead of me. She shifted uncomfortably next to me, leaning her head against the tree trunk. She yawned.

"You should get some sleep," I said finally. "We're going to take off tomorrow, head east."

She nodded. "Okay. Goodnight, Max."

I watched her jump down from the tree, questions whirling in my mind. I wanted to ask her what she meant when she said she knew how it felt…but, I'd invaded her privacy too much for one night.

"Night."

• • •

Itex must've sent them.

The School was done making experiments; they'd retired all their Erasers months ago. Plus, Jeb and the scientists at the School were helping us now; it didn't make any sense that they'd send Erasers after us while we were trying to do what they'd _told _us to.

No; Itex must've sent them.

I thought back to the day that the flock had kicked me out. Mere minutes before their betrayal, they'd been attacked by, well, Erasers. Except, they were more enhanced; smarter, faster, better. The flock had been totally confused to see them show up again. And now, here they were, attacking us in the dead of night.

Itex had to have made them. Maybe they'd taken the idea from the School, or maybe they'd watched too many werewolf horror films and wanted to see if the fear was real. Either way, it must've been Itex who sent these assholes after us.

It was in the middle of Ig's watch when they attacked. He jumped down out of the tree and hit me, hard, waking me roughly. I remember waking up _pissed_. I remember preparing something horrible to say to Iggy about waking me up at three in the morning when big yellow eyes blinked back at me.

The others were in a frenzy. Rema and Davy were shocked to see the half wolf, half man monsters snapping their fangs at us, trying to tear us apart. The rest of the flock fought back ruthlessly, furious and skilled.

After a moment of shock, I snapped to my feet and kicked the one in front of me in the snout with all my might. He snarled, taking a swipe at me, but I dodged at the last second.

I saw the Gasman reach into his jacket pocket and screeched, "No bombs! You'll start a forest fire!"

Then, after taking down the Eraser with a roundhouse kick to the ribs, I spotted Nudge and called, "Behind you!"

We fought for a couple minutes - it felt like days. By the time we were done, we all had our fair share of scrapes and bruises and aches. I started kicking dirt onto our still-smoldering fire as the others collected their stuff.

"Now _Itex _has Erasers?" Nudge asked, wiping off her jacket.

"I guess," I said, at the same time that Rema said, "Or Smadden sent them. They were supposed to retire us yesterday. They'll probably try and hunt us down."

She sounded guilt-ridden; she knew that she and her brother were putting us in danger. Usually, that fact would be all I'd need to kick them out once and for all; the way Old Max used to see it, we had enough danger as it was. We didn't need any more.

But something about the two tugged at my heart. They'd been through a lot, and Rema had given up a lot for her brother. She'd been so open and honest with me that I couldn't turn on her now even if I wanted to.

"Rema, I hate to break it to you," I said, "but we're kind of used to being hunted."

"Yeah," Nudge added. "They've been hunting us for years, and they still haven't figured it out."

Rema smiled.

"Anyways," Gazzy said, yanking on his backpack zipper, "didn't you guys have a connection at the lab? A Marcus dude? Wouldn't he tell them to back off?"

"Marcus wasn't a scientist," Davy said.

Rema looked a bit peeved at her brother's words. Davy probably sensed it, because he stopped and looked at Rema.

"Marcus can't stop the lab," Rema mumbled. "He just tried to help us cheat the system whenever we could."

I scratched my head. My motherly instincts were screaming at me not to press the issue, seeing how it affected her just to hear Marcus's name, but my survival instincts were louder. _You need to know who he is. The flock's in danger. Every piece of information counts. _

"Look," I said, trying to be gentle and not choke the information out of her like some kind of pyscho. Totally not me. "I need to know about this guy. We just got attacked, and it sounds like the lab you're from might be sending more Erasers if we don't start figuring this out. Who's Marcus?"

"Marcus," Rema said, leaning against a tree and reciting the information as if out of an encyclopedia; no emotion. "Eighteen-year-old _human _son of Paul Smadden, Director. Helped out his dad in the lab as a clerk. Discovered Davy on accident one day. Davy was going into surgery for a leg injury and Marcus saw a scientist carrying him through the halls. Marcus wasn't allowed on the floors where we were kept and tested; as far as he was told, his dad's work was a lab for developing cures and vaccines for common diseases and viruses. He never told his dad he was onto what was going on. He found Davy and I in our cells and started taking me out of mine occasionally, bribing me with food and stuff to tell him about what was happening to us." She shrugged, as if she didn't care nearly as much as I could tell she did. "About a month ago, his dad saw Marcus taking me out of the cell. I guess Smadden wasn't too happy about it; Marcus never came back."

She kicked up the dirt with her worn out shoes. Note-to-self: buy new clothes for flock. We look like hoodlums.

I cleared my throat to ease the tension. "Thanks for telling me that." I paused. "I think it's safe to say we need to keep moving."

"Good idea. Where should we go? Dr. M?"

I tried not to let Iggy's hopeful face sway me. I glanced around at everyone. "If we've got Erasers tailing us, we can't put Mom and El in danger. Let's just…get in the air, and we can grab some food in a few hours."

Slowly, we took off one by one. Dylan led the take-off, running forward and snapping out his wings. It was awesome watching the others take off. It was awesome watching the others fly in general. In seconds, the kids transformed from dorky, sleep-deprived crazies to graceful, incredible creatures. My heart swelled as Angel, Gazzy, and then Iggy followed. Nudge hung back, pretending to mess with her backpack straps. Rema and Davy took off, raising into the air with shaky confidence. I wondered how often they'd actually gotten to fly. In the School, Fang, Iggy and I had learned the basics from Jeb, but hadn't really gotten the chance to stretch our wings until he busted us out. Of course, it could've been different for Rema and Davy. They hadn't been at the School.

"What's up, Nudge?" I asked finally, glancing at her. She looked at me, probably weighing what she had to say in her mind. She bit her lip. I sighed, my eyes softening. "It's okay. Whatever you need to say, just say it."

I hated that she couldn't rely on me, 100%. It tore me to pieces inside.

"Rema…well, when she hears the name Marcus…"

She zipped and unzipped her jacket with her magnetic powers, her fingers hovering inches from the zipper. She finally looked up at me.

"It's like you were, when Fang and the boys left. When we were in Germany. Whenever someone said Fang's name…that's how she looks, Max. Like it hurts her to hear it spoken out loud." She sighed. "Like it makes it real."

Nudge gave me one more glance before taking off, shooting out her caramel wings and taking to the air.

**A/N: So, yay! We learned about Marcus, heard from Fang… Please review, guys. I am struggling enough as is trying to figure out the rest of this story and write it in time to update, and hearing from you all and what you think about the story (and any suggestions) would really help me immensely. **

**Thanks for reading! Can we get twenty reviews…? If so, I have a surprise...**

**Sneak Peek of Chapter 8: **_Before the doors closed completely behind me, I sucked in the fresh night air and said into the phone, "Fang, we are _so _royally fucked." _

**Review, friends!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Um. Let's see. **

_**American Hustle **_**was so incredible. Jennifer Lawrence was incredible. Bradley Cooper was incredible. Amy Adams was incredible. And, of course, Christian Bale was still perfection with a comb-over and potbelly. Five stars!**

**ALSO. Go read the excellent Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout. The first book is **_**Obsidian**_**. There are four so far and the fifth (and last) comes out this August. Incredible. Amazing. Sexy. Hilarious. Um, go read it and we can talk about Daemon and how cool he is. **

**And always, always, always watch Modern Family, because I have this weird, unexplainable crush on Phil. **

**As always, thanks for reading, reviewing and subscribing to **_**all **_**my stories. You guys are my favorite people in the entire world and I am seriously so spoiled. **_**Consequences**_**, the last in my trilogy, has 994 reviews. WOW. That is way more than I ever, ever expected. Incredible. I just can't even fathom how stunning that is. I just love you guys. **

**I just posted a new story, and it is called **_**The Art of Dying**_** (Previously called The Maybe Side of Life). It's a pretend-TAE-never-happened, flock-still-at-E-House, Max-gets-expiration-date, kind of story. Fax-Fax-Faxity-Fax. I'd love to hear what you all thought about it!**

**Read on.**

MAX

"So…this Fang guy was your boyfriend?" Davy inquired around a piece of pizza, his eyes innocently curious.

I hesitated, wondering what my reaction to that question should be. I struggled to swallow and stared at the boy for a second, weighing my options. I could tell him I didn't feel like talking about it, or I could feign indifference.

It was weird, but after everything Fang and I had been through, I still thought of him as my best friend before I thought of him as my boyfriend. I didn't say that, though, because that was totally not a response angry-ditched-Max would give; that was more of a dedicated-BFF-Max response.

"Guess so," I mumbled, taking a drink of my soda.

"Marcus was Rema's boyfriend," Davy said quietly. He said the word boyfriend reverently, as if Marcus was more to him than a guy his sister was falling for. Obviously, Davy and Rema both loved Marcus a lot more than they let on; Rema in a more intimate way. I figured the only reason he was brave enough to talk about it was because his sister had excused herself to the bathroom. We were currently sitting in a small pizza parlor in western Missouri, and as soon as we scarfed down as many pies as we could, we were finding somewhere to rest for the night and read our stolen files. With the copious amounts of money Rema had stolen, I didn't think finding a hotel in our price range would be a problem.

So, it was true. Rema and Marcus had been together. I glanced across the booth at Nudge, remembering what she'd said about Rema and Marcus. She met my eyes, obviously thinking the same thing as me. The son of a scientist, sneaking in to woo one of the experiments? Totally a star-crossed lover situation. There was no good ending to that. At all. I was the absolute opposite of a hopeless-romantic and _I _could even see it. Trust me - that's a big deal.

"What happened to him?" I asked quietly, picking off the three pepperonis from my slice and setting them on his plate. My observation of his love of pepperoni earned me a big grin, and I smiled at him.

Davy perched the three pepperonis onto his slice before taking a bite and saying, "Marcus would take Rema out sometimes," Davy said quietly. "Most of the scientists would pretend they didn't know, because they were afraid Marcus would get them fired."

"Out of the lab, or out of her cell?" Dylan cut in from beside me. Most of the table was listening to our hushed conversation, but Davy didn't seemed phased by it. If he felt guilty about sharing his sisters secrets, he didn't show it. She'd yet to return from the bathroom.

"Out of the lab," Davy said slowly. "Most of the time they went to a park, with swings and stuff. Marcus wanted to take me, so I could play on the monkey bars, but Rema didn't let me because she was afraid Marcus and I would get caught and they'd hurt me. But she would still go with him."

"And?"

"His dad found out. Had him moved to a different lab or something. Rema was really upset. She wouldn't eat or do what the scientists told her. Anything they made her eat she threw up. Anything they made her do, she fought back. It was really bad."

I watched him frown down at his pizza, thinking through his next words.

"He loved me and Rema a lot. Before he was sent away, he came down and told us about you. He also told us that when they came for us with needles, we needed to be ready to escape. He slipped Rema the key to her cell and mine. Gave us the codes to his dad's office, and the safe."

So that explained how they'd maneuvered the offices like they owned the place. I glanced up and saw Davy sliding further into the booth. I looked over and saw Rema coming toward us, her face a bit green. She sat down next to her brother.

"You okay?" Dylan asked her, looking concerned.

"Fine," she breathed, taking a sip of her Sprite. She smiled tightly. "What'd I miss?"

I sighed, sitting back in the booth. It was the first time my spine had relaxed in hours, and my muscles tightened and ached in protest.

"We'll get a hotel room for the night and look over the information. Hopefully we'll get something useful from the files. Then we'll decide how to approach the whole destroy-Itex obstacle."

"A hotel room?"

I looked at Davy. The look on his face was one of wonder. He hadn't been out of the labs in, like, five years. He hadn't seen the world in five years. What he had seen before that was probably all a blur. My heart squeezed. He wasn't just a hyperactive kid - he was finally seeing the world for the first time in a long time.

I felt sick at the thought of it. I smiled at him.

"Yep. But first, new clothes."

• • •

"No."

Nudge stomped her foot. "But it's _cute_."

"If you're willing to fly in it _and _battle Erasers in it, then you can get it," I said, looking at the navy blue cotton dress she'd tried on.

Nudge looked down at it, frowning. "Flying in dresses sucks," she muttered.

I nodded, trying to be sympathetic. "So does kicking ass. Sorry kid. Buy some jeans or something."

She nodded. "Yeah, you're right."

She wandered off to the junior girl's section, leaving me standing outside the dressing room. We were in the middle of some Wal-Mart in Missouri, in the clothes section. It still amazed me that Wal-Mart had pretty much everything necessary for sustainable life. It was a pretty rockin' place, if you ask me. Now, Nudge still cringed at the thought of wearing clothes from a grocery store, but really - the clothes we buy usually only have about a month's lifespan, so there was no need for designer labels. Or price tags.

"But we just came into a crap ton of money," Gazzy mumbled, carrying a few shirts and a new pair of jeans out of the dressing room to my left.

"Yes. And we won't be able to rob another wealthy scientist that easily in quite a while," I said. "Just be happy we don't have to steal these."

"But that was at least _fun_," Gazzy whined.

I was about to chastise him when I saw the dressing room attendant watching us suspiciously. I grabbed his shoulder and steered him toward a nearby bench, where the rest of them were all gathered, waiting with their chosen outfits.

"Okay, just wait here. Nudge is getting a new pair of jeans and then we'll be ready."

I did a head count. "Where's Rema?"

The others looked around. Angel frowned. "I don't know. I can't hear her. She must be somewhere else in the store."

I tried not to stress out too much about that. Rema was smart and strong. She could hold her own. I didn't need to worry about her being alone for a couple of minutes in a Wal-Mart…right?

Oh, for God's sake. I needed to get a grip.

After a couple more minutes, we were ready to go. We headed for the check out and as we were laying our stuff out on the counter, I was scanning for Rema. She didn't have a phone, so I was hoping she'd head for the check out on her own and find us. After holding up the line waiting for her to come to us, I decided to just pay for our stuff and pay for her whenever she showed up.

As soon as the cashier said my total, I saw Rema walking out of the restroom - with her bags in tow.

"Rema?"

She smiled when she saw us and headed over. "Hey," she said. "I, uh, guess we got separated, huh? I decided to just check out and wait for you guys."

That set off an alarm in my head. Something wasn't right…

_Jeb, _I thought, handing the cash over to the check out dude, _do you really think I can trust her?_

_Rema is not the threat, Maximum. Although she does have secrets of her own. _

Well. That did not help calm me one bit.

• • •

"Chicago. That's in Illinois, right?"

I rolled my eyes at her uneducated-ness. Right. Because I was so much more intelligent.

"Yeah," I said. "Why? What you got about Chicago?"

Nudge ignored me and continue scanning the paper. Finally, she handed it to me. "Here. Third paragraph. Is that what we're looking for?"

I took the paper from Nudge's hand and glanced around the room. Everyone else had given up on research two hours ago. There were only two files, anyways, and Nudge and I were tackling the reading as a team. We were the only two up.

"Yeah, it's in Chicago all right," I mumbled. The document Nudge had handed me was a research report submitted by one of the scientists at the Developmental Biochemistry Laboratory.

My eyes read over the paragraph again, words like _epidemic _and _chemical imbalance _and _lethal _making my heart squeeze. In my head, the By-Half Plan, up until now, had always been just an undeveloped plan to kill half the world's population. I guess I'd never put much thought into the actual _method _of killing; maybe bombs, maybe a disease outbreak? But now, it was so much more clear - and horrifying.

_The Itex Corporation of Chicago, Illinois has spent the past two and a half decades developing the By-Half Plan. This plan, code 443299.B234, was the initial project of Dr. Hans Gunther-Hagen until his death in 1992. _

Oh, _really_?

I glanced over at Dylan, who was teaching a card game to Davy. I wondered how much he really knew about Gunther-Hagen. When I'd asked GH, he'd said that he had never been affiliated with the school. I didn't remember asking about Itex. I just figured he was buddies with Jeb.

That struck another idea in my mind. I wondered if Jeb knew about Dr. God's involvement with Itex. He probably wouldn't be very happy to hear of that development.

I _really _wanted to be the one to tell him.

I lowered my voice and leaned toward Nudge. "Look up anything you can find about Gunther-Hagen's supposed death."

Her eyes widened. "It says he _died_? But that's impossible."

"Apparently he died over twenty years ago. Hack into any databases you can, figure out what happened and why no one ever figured out it was fake."

She nodded, pulling out the spare laptop we'd actually gotten legally - compared to our stolen government-issue laptop that was now in Fang's possession. I continued reading.

_The By-Half Plan's main ambition was to cut the population of the entire planet in half, ridding the Earth of all incapable life-forms. The process would begin through the outbreak of a chemical imbalance in main water sources, causing horrific side-effects. This same chemical imbalance, once spread throughout a human being's blood system, would shut down one's immune system and make the body vulnerable to any and all viruses and diseases. _

"Shit," I breathed.

Nudge looked at me. "What? What now?"

I sat back, my brain on overload. Immediately, I thought back to when the flock had broken out in sickness with green skin and boils. They'd all gotten sick from something dumped in the water supply for our house in Colorado. Their bodies had fought it off, obviously, because the chemical imbalance targeted non-genetically enhanced people. Normal people. Thank God my mom and Ella hadn't drank the water.

"It's like a poison, added to water supplies around the globe by all branches of Itex," I whispered, my eyes still on the paper. Nudge was listening intently beside me. "If it doesn't kill you with it's side effects, it breaks down your immune system and makes your body a beacon for viruses."

Nudge's face contorted in horror. "People would be dying from a common cold or mild allergies. This is _so _not good."

I agreed. "It gets worse."

How could it possibly get worse, you might ask?

_The original creators of The By-Half Plan also created the only known cure for the epidemic, that, once released back into the water source or directly into the human's blood flow, stops the poison. We believe the intention of creating the cure is not only to ensure that it does not get out of hand and wipe out the entire globe, but for two other main reasons. _

_One, so that any benefactors of the Itex Corporation or any scientists who work within the company can keep themselves and their families safe from the sickness. This way, any donators or scientists can protect themselves against the impending genocide._

_Two, Itex intends to use the cure to gain power. Once half the world's population is gone due to their lethal poison, the surviving people will, predictably, be in a state of panic and chaos. With the cure, Itex can not only be the villain, but the hero as well. The Corporation will use the cure to become dictators above any survivors._

"What's worse than death by sneezing?" Nudge mumbled.

I didn't respond. I didn't know what to do next. If this research was up to date - and correct - then every branch of Itex around the world had the poison. And the cure.

Every single branch around the world.

I stood up.

"Anything on Gunther-Hagen?" I asked. Nudge shook her head.

"Okay. I'll be back in a while. Gonna go try and figure this out. Iggy's in charge."

Nudge nodded, her fingers clacking on the keyboard with purpose. I let myself out of the room and headed towards the stairwell.

This sucked. I needed Fang to help me brainstorm. To help me figure out what to do next. None of this was good news, and the weight of the world on my shoulders felt like it had just gotten twenty times heavier. I was so freaking sick of this. It kept getting worse and worse.

Once I got to the lobby, I pulled out my phone. Before the doors closed completely behind me, I sucked in the fresh night air and said in the phone, "Fang, we are _so _royally fucked."

**A/N: Well! What is Rema up to? What is going on with Itex? With Guther-Hagen? What about…with Fang? **

**Review to find out! **

**Sneak Peek of Chapter Nine: **_"Fang's phone, Brock speaking," an amused voice answered me. "Fifty cents in the swear jar, Max."_

**Thanks again for reading. And go check out **_**The Art of Dying**_**…I'd love for some feedback.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: The more I write for this story, the more excited I am for us to get to the later chapters. EEK.**

**Thanks for everyone that reviewed for the last chapter and bonus praise for those of you who checked out **_**The Art of Dying**_**! **

MAX

"Fang's phone, Brock speaking," an amused voice answered me. "Fifty cents in the swear jar, Max."

I rolled my eyes. If the kid was sitting in front of me, I probably would have backhanded him. I was seriously stressing, and really needed Fang. Not Brock's bullshit.

"Put Fang on. _Now_."

"Ooh, somebody's in trouble…" Brock passed the phone to Fang.

"Hello?"

"I thought you said Brock was fourteen."

"I think he is…why?"

"He acts like a fucking two year old."

I heard cackling. _"A dollar in the swear jar!" _

Fang sighed. "Did you call just to tell me something I already know?"

"Well, if you're talking about the fact that we're _totally _in over our heads, then yeah. Good chat. Talk to you later."

I started walking down the sidewalk aimlessly, wishing Fang was with me in person rather than states away. This sucked. I felt totally hopeless, had no plan for taking down Itex now that I knew what we were up against, and just wanted to see him. I considered telling him to meet me halfway.

God, I wish.

"What happened?" Fang asked calmly.

"I don't even know where to start. We snuck into the lab in Seattle, got a few folders on Itex, and just now got the chance to read 'em."

"Nice. My search for information was a bust," Fang said. "Only found stuff we already knew."

"Well, I found a lot of new stuff. And it's all really, really bad."

"Shoot."

"Gunther-Hagen was the lead developer for the By-Half Plan. It was his idea in the first place."

"Knew I didn't like him," Fang said wryly. Right. It didn't have anything to do with the fact that GH killed him. "How'd this all get past Jeb?"

"I don't know. I wish I could believe he was lying the whole time, but…"

"You don't think he knew," Fang filled in.

I rubbed my forehead. "It's just…Jeb and the scientists at the School really didn't know that much about the By-Half Plan except that it was bad and going to kill millions of people. Maybe he really didn't know. The file said that Gunther-Hagen died in 1992, and maybe the School just didn't see the point in looking into the background of some dead psychopath."

"Died? Is there a death certificate on file anywhere?"

"Nudge is researching it now, but I have no idea where we're going to get with _that_." I sat down on a bench outside a restaurant that was closed and scanned the street. "Oh, and get this; Itex not only has the _poison _intended to wipe out half the world's population, but the _cure_, too. Every branch has both."

"What?" Fang sounded actually floored about this new information. I nodded even though he couldn't see me.

"I know. They aren't going to become evil dictators by killing everyone, they're going to become evil dictators by anonymously killing half the population, then surfacing as some random company that found a cure. No one will know that they're the ones who started it in the first place. How _fucked up _is that?"

"Royally," Fang said, agreeing with my first statement. "I'm guessing besides the other labs, we're the only ones who know this."

"What the hell are we supposed to do? Every branch around the world - that could be hundreds. And who knows what kind of emergency systems they have in place. What if, the moment we infiltrate the main corporation, they send out and SOS and all branches immediately start the plan? What then?"

Fang was silently. He knew I wasn't really demanding an answer; this was how Fang and I brainstormed together. We both thought out loud, then played off each other's words. Sometimes, just the way we'd word something or think it through would lead us to the answer. I knew he was paying attention to every single detail, and if I closed my eyes I could picture him, totally focused. How many times has we done just this? Gotten away from the others to talk about how really freakin' hopeless a mission was?

"We'd need to find a way to make sure none of the other branches can contaminate anything with the poison," I said finally.

"Without flying around the world and visiting every branch," Fang said.

"It's impossible," I mumbled. "Why the hell is this _our _job?"

"Your stressing," Fang said softly. "Quit stressing."

"How do you suggest I do that, huh? We are so in trouble here. And I am so tired of _constantly being in trouble_."

"I know," Fang said. "It sucks. But it's not going to change anything if we sit around stressing about the life we have."

"Shut up," I breathed. "You're annoying the shit out of me."

I could hear his smirk when he said, "What's up with the flock?"

"Everyone's all right. We had a run-in with Erasers this morning, but otherwise, we're good. Davy's become Dylan's shadow in the past couple hours, and…I don't know what to do about Rema. She's been acting really weird after telling me about her parents, and the Voice said she's keeping secrets from me."

"Do you think she's working for Itex?"

"No," I said slowly. "I don't think she's a traitor. I just…can't fully trust someone who's keeping things from me."

I mean, if I were being honest, there were only a few people I could fully trust at all. But… How was I supposed to give Rema and her brother the benefit of the doubt when she seemed to have her own agenda?

"Where are you and Brock?" I asked, picking at the chipped paint on the bench.

"Some hotel in Missouri," Fang said with disinterest. I sat up.

"No _way_. Where?"

"I don't know," Fang said slowly, hearing my sudden excitement but not understanding. "Near the border to Illinois, why?"

I frowned. "I'm in Missouri. West. Was hoping there was some chance we'd coincidentally booked the same hotel."

"Hm," Fang said. "Well, with your super speed, I'm guessing you could be here in…ten minutes? Fifteen?"

"Don't you dare tempt me."

Fang snorted.

"All right, I'm gonna head back," I said. "I'll text you if anything comes up. Oh, and Fang?"

"Yeah?"

"Make sure Brock knows that when he and I actually meet in person, that is the _first _time we've met. Okay?"

"On it. I'll talk to you later."

I sat at that bench for almost thirty minutes after Fang hung up, trying to rethink through everything we knew. I had no idea where to go from here; I felt like I was drowning. Why had I been saddled with such a huge responsibility? What scientists out there really thought this mission was appropriate for a fifteen year old who couldn't even get _her _life together?

_The adults are the ones destroying the world, Max. _

I groaned, rubbing my eyes. _That doesn't mean I'm the kid who's supposed to fix it all. How do you even know that I'm cut out for this job?_

_You are. I know. I trust you. And when the time comes, you'll trust yourself, too._

• • •

"Boating accident," I repeated, glancing at the article Nudge had pulled up on the computer. "He faked his death?"

"He must've had it all planned out," Nudge said excitedly in a hushed voice Pretty much everyone was asleep now except for Iggy, who was know listening to our conversation but not sharing his commentary. Dylan was in the shower.

I looked at Nudge with a quirked eyebrow, kind of surprised that she was so hyped up over this research. She ignored me and kept conspiring. "Even when he was first developing the By-Half Plan, he must've totally thought his plan through. He was going to plan the entire thing, create the poison and the cure, then kill himself off. Stage his own death and relocate. I mean, they never confirmed the story or found a body - obviously - so they just assumed it was a boating accident. Assumed he was dead. Convinced the authorities he was gone. They even found the remains of his boat washed up on the shore in Florida. Anyways, he moved and started the next step of his plan: Dylan. Clone some dead kid, brainwash him to worship you, then use Dylan as an excuse to get close to us. That's how he tested out the poison on us."

"He's been in on it this whole time?" I sat back against the headboard next to Iggy. My knee was pressed against his, just because I knew that he liked knowing where things were around him. Having some kind of physical contact kept him anchored. "Do you think Dylan's in on it, too?"

Nudge frowned. "Max…Even if Dylan _did _know about Gunther-Hagen's motives…his feelings for you-" she saw the look on my face, "-no matter _how _unnatural - would stop him from putting you or us in danger. But…"

"You don't think he knows," I said.

"He's too innocent. Either he's a really good actor, or he has no idea Hans was a mega psycho."

I nodded. "I guess you're right."

The three of us sat in silence for a long time. I was desperately trying to figure out a plan, fast, so that I didn't look like some newbie with no idea how to pull miraculous solutions out of her ass. The other two sat and waited for me to do just that. I heard the water shut off in the bathroom. Finally, Nudge spoke.

"So, what should we do now?"

I sighed. "Let's sleep."

Sleep sounded like the best option.

• • •

I had asked the front desk to send me a wake-up call at eight.

This was not what I meant.

At seven thirty, the windows and balcony sliding door in our hotel room exploded and effectively woke us all up. Shattered glass flew _everywhere_ and trust me - there's nothing like the sound of breaking glass to get the blood flowing.

I didn't even have time to call out directions. The room was immediately swarmed with blood-thirsty Erasers. Nudge was yanked out of bed by her hair and I heard Rema cry out across the room. Someone hit the wall with a loud bang. I almost felt sorry for our neighbors.

"Out the window, now!" I practically screamed, kicking an Eraser in the head. They weren't holding back this time; they didn't care if they killed us or not. With the original Erasers, Jeb had always kept them in line; they'd come after us, scared the shit out of us, kept us on our toes, roughed us up a bit - but whenever they'd tried to really take one of us out, Jeb had stopped it. Like when Ari had almost killed Fang.

This time - no one was stopping them. I saw the Gasman make it through the window. Iggy was doing good; Rema was struggling, but she was also trying to watch out for her brother. My feet were bleeding and searing with pain - my shoes were by the balcony door, and I was fighting barefoot. I kneed one of the Erasers in the stomach then punched him in the nose, causing a gush of blood. He freakin' stained my shirt. Asshole.

It was odd - to be fighting Erasers again. To get back into the rhythm of combat. It was interesting, though, watching the others fall into position and pull out techniques we hadn't used in ages.

I took down the Eraser I was currently battling and glanced around. We'd already wiped out half the attackers. I saw that Davy, Nudge, Dylan and Angel were all outside, still fighting Erasers in the air. I made my way to Rema, stepping over large piles of glass and slumped bodies of Erasers, and helped her finish off the two going after her.

"Thanks," she mumbled, running toward the window and throwing herself out. There were probably ten Erasers outside. I followed her, grabbing the three forgotten backpacks. One was mine, one was Ig's, one was Dylan's. Everyone else had managed to grab theirs. Iggy was right on my heels out the window and I threw him his backpack, shouting, "Ig, backpack. Heads up!"

Then, as an Eraser advanced on me, I spun around in a tight circle, swinging Dylan's backpack and hitting the wolf's head, hard. I looked up, breathing hard, and saw Dylan gaping at me. I tossed him his bag.

Soon there were six Erasers. Then four. Then only two. When I thought we'd finally gotten the upper hand, one of the grabbed Davy in a chokehold and wrapped a claw around his neck. He began flying backwards, warning us with a stern look in his eyes.

"You kids are going to listen to us," his friend growled. The one not holding Davy was the one speaking, and his eyes were malicious.

Then the two of them took off. _With _Davy.

Davy was screaming, trying to fight away from the monster who was holding him. We all snapped into action, and I poured ahead of the others, tailing the Erasers until they dove down and started flying through the forest. What the hell were they doing? Maybe trying to get us out of the air over a city?

I could hear Rema screeching behind me, calling out to Davy. I blocked her out - I blocked everything out and focused on getting through the forest. Finally, the dense trees split open into a small clearing.

I skidded to a stop, my heels digging into the ground and kicking up grass. The others weren't far behind me. The Erasers looked like they were here to clean up unfinished business.

I gulped.

It was one of those moments when I didn't _really_ understand how pivotal it was yet. I watched the Erasers get a safe distance away from me, one of them throwing Davy onto the ground. I winced, seeing Davy so afraid. The look on his face would forever be frozen in my mind. Rema stepped up right beside me, seething.

"Let go of my brother," she demanded, her voice shaking. Not with fear, though. With fury. I had no doubt in my mind that she would tear them apart if they tried to hurt Davy.

The others made a semicircle beside Rema and I, halfway cornering the Erasers. We were all prepared for a fight. One of the monsters was bent over Davy, a claw on his shoulder and another holding his head down by his hair. His teeth were frighteningly close to Davy's neck.

Rema clenched her fists. I could feel a lot of emotions rolling off of her at that moment; fear, hatred, desperation.

"Let. Go. Of. My. Brother."

"Sorry, Darling," the Eraser standing between us and Davy said with no sympathy. "Unfortunately, you don't make the rules."

**A/N: I'm sorry. And I'm sorry about next chapter, too. In advance. **

**Please review!**

**Sneak Peek of Chapter Ten: **_We'd lived through a million terrors in the School, but none of them as horrible as this. _

**Review, peeps. I love hearing from you. **


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Chapter ten and I have 97 reviews! You guys always seem to surprise me with how many reviews I get. I am forever grateful.**

**I wasn't going to put this up until Wednesday, but the reviews I got for _The Art of Dying_ today inspired me. Thank you so much.**

**To those of you who have read my trilogy or **_**The Hardest Part**_**; thank you so, so much. Even now, long after those are over, I still get favorites and follows and the occasional heart-felt review. OMG. That is awesome. I never, ever expected to have readers as dedicated and fantastic as you all. **

**I apologize for this chapter in advance. It's a bit angsty, but very important. **

**Read on. **

MAX

They tell you life is full of surprises. That life has ups and downs; that life gets worse before it gets better. They say that life is a balance of love and loss. They tell you life is _full _of surprises.

But they never tell you that life is tragic. That there is a feeling of desperation and pain and fear that can scar someone's heart - and that life is chock-full of that feeling. That living can sometimes feel like agonizing torture, especially in the face of true darkness. They forget to tell you that life is full of hatred and loss and regret. That life is unforgiving and unremorseful. That you can do your best to be a good person and life just won't give a shit.

Here's what they should tell you: Life is full of surprises; and most of them suck.

"_Don't _touch him!" Rema screamed. Her voice was full of anger and I could hear something else, too - threats, I guess. Promises that if they touched her brother, it would be their last act. They didn't seem phased. Davy was screaming and wiggling under the Eraser that was pinning him down. The monster lowered his muzzle to Davy's ear and said something - something so terrifying that made him fall silent and stop moving. I could see his chest moving rapidly under the Eraser's weight.

"Don't…move," the Eraser before us said, holding a hand up in our direction. He cast a glance at me and snarled, "Maximum Ride. You have no business here. ITMS will take care of _you_." His eyes slid over to Rema again. "We just need to take care of these two."

"You want _me_, right?" Rema demanded hysterically. "Somehow they _know_, don't they? Fine! Fine, just take me. Leave David alone."

She stepped forward and I grabbed her wrist, but she shook me off.

"We don't _want _either of you," the Eraser in front of us said. "The two of you were scheduled for termination days ago."

Oh, God.

That was really when it became clear. When the situation's urgency really sunk in. They weren't kidnapping anyone. In fact, I bet these Erasers were told _not _to come back with them. They weren't kidnapping them.

They were here to kill them.

A sick feeling gurgled in my stomach. I needed to get Davy and Rema out of here, now. They had already made it clear that the flock and I weren't on their hit list, but Rema and Davy were.

Iggy tensed on the other side of Rema; he understood as clearly as I did that we were in big trouble. Davy was all the way across the field from us, and I knew Rema was willing to do anything to keep him safe. She would protect her brother with her life, if they'd let her. But…sometimes we didn't get to be the hero, even when we wanted to.

Iggy was running towards Davy when it happened. I was holding back Rema, ready to protect her in the Eraser before us tried to take action, and Iggy was on his way to save Davy. He was only a few feet away when the Eraser ripped out Davy's throat.

I had only known Rema and her brother for a couple of days. Rema had become somewhat of a recluse, avoiding one-on-one time and diverting all attention away from herself. David…he had barely known anything about the world at all.

But there are things that even emotionally-averse Max picked up on; like the fact that family meant _everything _to the two of them. It made sense; they'd been on their own, with only each other to lean on. They'd relied on each other, much like Fang and I had. Much like all of the flock had. When everything in life is stolen from you, you hold onto what you can. And what Davy and Rema could hold onto was each other. That was all.

There's a kind of love that family has that can't be mimicked or replicated. A kind of affection that is natural and comforting and sometimes the only thing that can keep a person sane. Familes have a deep connection. Siblings, especially Rema and Davy, were linked. If one were to suffer…the other would, too.

That's something you don't forget; the love of family. Kind of like how I could never forget the look on my Mom's face when she realized who I was. Or the look on Fang's face when he told me that he was _choosing _me. The look on Angel's face when Fang, Iggy and her brother left us a lifetime ago.

The look on Rema's face when the Eraser did what he set out to do.

The keening, heart-breaking sound of her cries.

The sight of her tearing apart the Eraser closest to us in a pure rage.

Iggy took care of the Eraser across the field, pulling him off of Davy's body and snapping his neck quickly. Rema was immediately next to her brother's body, making nonsensical noises and crying hysterically. It had happened in seconds, and I hate to say that we had no chance, but… it was so _fast_. In seconds, a life was completely gone. It was so hideous; what had just happened was so disgustingly hideous that I couldn't even put it into words. One look at Dylan and he knew to get the others away. God. We'd lived through a million terrors in the School, but none of them as horrible as this.

The smell was the worst. The smell hit me first; blood and vomit, so strong and so pungent that I doubled over as my stomach clenched. I gagged, felt my body trying to expel the contents of my stomach in disgust. I forced myself to hold in my breakfast.

Then the sight of it.

Oh, God. It was the most gruesome thing I'd ever seen or dreamt of seeing, the sight before me. That an innocent, beautiful boy like Davy could've been ripped to pieces like that. That a loving sister like Rema was now sobbing desperately over him, screaming at him to get up. He was obviously dead. Already gone. I could feel my heart tearing in two.

"Iggy," I whispered, and he was right by Rema in seconds, trying to get her away from Davy.

"Leave me alone," she said fervently, her eyes squeezed shut. She held her brother tight. "Leave me alone. Let me hold him."

Rema was covered in blood, the Eraser's and her brother's, but she barely seemed to notice. I couldn't even look at her in that moment; just knowing what was before my squeezed-shut eyes made my heart clench.

It wasn't fair. Nothing was ever fair.

"Iggy," I breathed again, and he stepped near me and brushed his arm against mine.

"I don't…" Iggy trailed off.

Next to us, Rema breathed, "I love you, Davy. I love you so much, baby brother."

I glanced behind me and saw the others at the opposite end of the field watching us with fearful eyes. As soon as I clenched my fists and shook my head, Nudge covered her mouth to stifle her sobs. Dylan wrapped his arms around her comfortingly and she cried. Angel held onto her brother.

Rema was rocking him, whispering, "David, David, David…" A prayer, almost. Like a chant. Like a spell that would somehow wake him up and heal his wounds and fix everything that was unfixable. God, I wished. I wished the impossible were possible, just for this one moment.

Minutes passed and it felt like years.

"We can't stay here," Iggy said softly to me, his eyes pained. "We need to get Rema out of here."

"I…I know," I said, trying to keep my voice in check. I knelt down next to Rema and put my hand on her shoulder. Her cries has reduced to violent shaking and silent tears. She watched me as I gently moved my hand across Davy's blood-smeared forehead.

"_Why_?"

I didn't know. I had no idea. I shook my head, gently taking Rema's hand in mine. It was wet with blood.

"I don't know."

_God_, I thought. _That isn't fucking good enough, Max_.

But nothing I said would ever be enough. I couldn't mend Rema's broken heart. I wasn't sure if anything could.

"They'll pay," I said softly. "All of them."

Rema closed her eyes and held onto her brother. "I know. But that doesn't fix anything."

• • •

I helped Rema out of her bloodstained clothes and into the shower. We'd flown northeast, into Iowa, and checked into another hotel room there. Most of the day had been spent flying and mourning and trying not to cry. We'd buried Davy in the clearing; it was the best we could do for him. Rema had been delirious with misery throughout the entire process, but it needed to be done.

As soon as she was in the shower, she rested her forehead against the tile and stood motionless under the spray. I slid the shower door closed and slowly left the bathroom, trying not to hear the soft crying. Trying to hold it together.

Davy had deserved more. He'd deserved a long, happy life with his parents and his sister in a normal house with a normal childhood. He'd deserved so, so much more than what he'd gotten. But I couldn't give that to him, not now.

Instead, we'd have to settle for doing him justice. If I hadn't already been motivated to defeat Itex, I was now. If it weren't for Itex, the other laboratories wouldn't have ever had a reason to start experimenting. Not that that was any excuse.

No, even after Itex was destroyed, we would turn in all of the scientists. Whether they helped us or not, they were _wrong_. And demented. And needed to be convicted of their crimes.

As soon as I exited the bathroom Angel wrapped her arms around me. She looked eight or nine now, always growing, but she was skinny and light so I swept her up into my arms and kissed her head.

"I'm sorry," she cried into my shoulder.

"I know," I breathed. "Me too, baby."

How could I fight with any of them? After watching Rema lose her baby brother, how could I hold a grudge over what they'd done?

The past was the past. They were here, now, trying to make up for it, and I hadn't been the least bit forgiving. But I'd just watch someone lose the most important person in her life. And I couldn't even imagine losing anyone in the flock.

So I wrapped my arms around Angel and sat on the edge of one of the beds, rocking her gently. We all sat in silence, almost in disbelief at what the last few hours had held. The sound of Rema's crying carried out from behind the closed bathroom door and filled the silent room with a soundtrack of anguish. In that moment, there was nothing I wanted more than to stop everyone's pain and bring David back.

But life isn't fair. And it doesn't grant do-overs.

"We should get rest," I said finally. I helped Angel crawl under the covers next to Nudge, who was already asleep - or pretending to be asleep. Gazzy followed soon after that and Rema, too, once she got out of the shower. She went right to sleep without a word to anyone.

"I'll take watch, Max," Iggy said softly. "You should sleep."

"I can't," I breathed, looking out the window. As if looking at the stars would distract me from the mental image of the destruction I'd witnessed today. "You're lucky you didn't see it, Ig. I hate to say that, but you are _lucky_."

"Max."

I looked at him. Dylan was across the room, watching us but staying silent. I knew he was hurting - hell, we all were - but Davy had become his little buddy.

Davy had become one of us.

My chest hurt thinking about it. We'd so easily lost one of our own today. In a split second, one of us had lost the fight. Who would be next? Who would suffer _next_?

"I'm going flying," I said. "I need…" I trailed off. Iggy could tell that I wanted to be alone, and I knew he wasn't going to stop me. He knew me almost as well as Fang did, and he could sense when I needed time by myself. "I'll be back for first watch. If something happens, get everyone out and fly well out of the area. Text me or call me if anything happens. And take care of Rema."

Iggy nodded and I glanced at Dylan before letting myself step onto the windowsill and fall out into the night sky.

I cursed myself in my mind while I pulled my phone out.

"Are you still in Missouri?"

• • •

_Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid… _

I stepped out of the elevator and walked down the hall, searching for the right room number.

_What happened to flock comes first, Max? You should be back in Iowa, with them. Not here. Not sneaking around behind their backs, lying to them in such a fucked-up time. _

602. That had been the room, right? Right. I knocked three times, leaning my head against the doorframe, trying to forget the sight of Davy's mangled body and the sound of Rema's screaming. God, her screams - they were constantly replaying in my mind.

I barely had time to think, _Yes, 602, at least I got that right, _before the door was completely open and my hands met familiar a chest, familiar arms, familiar shoulders, familiar cheeks. I grabbed his face and pulled him close to me but I didn't kiss him. I looked at him, stared up at him and blinked a couple times and stared some more, trying to fit the right words to my feelings. But I'd never been very good at that. In fact, I'd always sucked at it.

"I shouldn't be here," I forced out, and then it all came out at once. "I shouldn't be here, I should be with the others, but I can't stop seeing all the blood, and hearing her screaming, and the look on her face…it was so horrible, I wish…I wish….It doesn't matter anymore. I can't fix it. I couldn't save him. And who's next, Fang? We're all in trouble, it's so stupid to drag the others into this…someone else is going to die and I can't handle that on my conscience. I can barely look at Rema, knowing that if I'd been more careful he'd be alive. But if it was one of the others? You? Oh, God…"

Fang didn't kiss me, either. He knew that wasn't what I needed right now. Instead, he pulled me inside and closed the door to the hotel room. I could hear soft snoring in the room and I knew Brock was fast asleep. I could see the faint glow of a TV.

Fang didn't even carry me into the room. He didn't even take me to a chair or a bed. He sunk to the ground with me and leaned against the door as I clung to him. I didn't cry; didn't have the tears to. I'd cried the entire flight into Missouri. Now, though, I just wrapped my arms around his neck and took slow, even breaths into his shoulder and tried not to picture myself in Rema's spot, and Fang in Davy's.

**A/N: I really would like to hear your thoughts on this one. Do you hate me know? Are you angry that you got the fax reunion but were not allowed the fax make-out sesh? Sorry, guys, that comes later. ;) And trust me, when it comes, it will be…lovely. **

**Anyways, I know it sucks that Davy died…but it's important to the story. **

**Thanks again for reading. I would love 115 reviews…think we can get there for my tenth chapter? If I can get 115 reviews before tomorrow, I'll update _The Art of Dying_ tomorrow... If that persuades any of you to review. **

**Sneak Peek of Chapter 11: **_"I love you. Whatever happens, just know that."_

**Talk to me. **


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Big thanks to all those out there who reviewed; especially my 100th reviewer, _Sam_, and my very dedicated friend, _Stormchase_! You guys are excellent. **

MAX

I woke up to being kicked in the side. Not hard enough to feel like I was being attacked, but enough to wake me up. I straightened up - odd, I was already in the sitting position - and felt my neck muscles scream out in pain. _Ouch_.

Before I really had time to figure out my whereabouts, a heavy being was falling on top of me and crushing me into _another _being. I heard a familiar _oomph _beneath me and blinked a few times, letting my eyes focus on what seemed to be…Fang's neck.

Okay, I was completely lost now.

"What are you doing sleeping on the _floor_?" a voice complained gruffly. Whatever pointy appendage was in my gut disappeared, and I followed said elbow up the arm and neck to look at a boy not much younger than I was. He had startling green eyes and mousy brown hair. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and finally seemed to realize that he had tripped over _two _people, not just one.

Fang was finally showing signs of consciousness, and I sat up, trying to sort out my thoughts.

Fang and I must've fallen asleep leaning against the hotel door. I was still in Fang's arms and he was still holding me the exact same way he had been when I had gotten there. I shifted out of Fang's grip, feeling self-conscious, and watched Brock make his way into the bathroom across the small hallway from us.

"Too freakin' dark…trip the poor tired kid…should have just taken her to his bed…"

The bathroom door closed and Brock's mumbling stopped. Fang looked at me, almost confused. Maybe he was still trying to figure out what was going on.

It dawned on me, then: Davy. The entire reason I'd flown two and a half hours - an hour and fifteen minutes with my super speed - into Missouri to meet Fang. The entire reason my flock was at the hotel in Iowa, a complete and utter wreck.

My night with Fang had been unsurprisingly somber. We'd sat the same way for hours - me cradled in his lap, my chin on his neck - while I voiced my fears to the wooden door of the hotel room and Fang had reassured me that everything would be alright. I was extensively proud of myself for not crying (at least I didn't remember crying…) and for being able to somewhat hold my emotions together.

"What time is it?" I asked, standing up. Fang joined me and walked a bit further into the room, glancing at the alarm clock.

"Three AM," he said, sounding less than psyched at that information.

"I have to go back," I said. "Dylan's been on watch for two hours longer than he was supposed to be…I can't believe we fell asleep."

"I'm glad you did," Fang said. The lights in the room were still off, but I could see him pretty well due to the amped-up senses, courtesy of ITMS. "Are you okay?"

"I just..." I trailed off. When I finally glanced a peek at Fang, he was watching me intensely, waiting for what I had to say. I sighed. There was no use in keeping my fears bottled up; not with some much at stake. "It's just that...Rema was willing to do anything to save Davy. Anything. She was just too late. And, well...I'm always ready to save you guys, but..." My voice cracked and I stopped. Imagining it was just too much. I swallowed, hard, and finished with, "What if _I'm_ too late?"

He kissed my forehead. "We're going to be fine. I seem to recall some kick-ass bird-girl drilling fighting techniques into our heads at a very young age."

I smiled weakly.

"I mean, the chick was a total pain in my ass, but she did a good job teaching combat."

I socked him, laughing lightly. Even in the face of misery, Fang was cracking jokes for _my_ benefit.

"Thank you," I breathed, truly meaning it. "Did I tell you about Gunther-Hagen?"

Fang shook his head. He moved across the room and plugged in the coffee maker on the small table in the corner. I personally thought that three AM was too early for a Cup o' Joe, but didn't voice that opinion.

"He faked his death with a boating accident. They found the remains of his boat but never a body. He waited a couple years to start doing scientific work again. Since Itex was so hush-hush about all of their projects, especially his, I figured they didn't release the news to the public. When he started popping up again in the scientific world, they couldn't really do anything without revealing their plans."

"Smart," Fang commented. Brock came out of the bathroom and, totally ignoring me and Fang, flopped back down on one of the beds. He was snoring in seconds. I looked back at Fang.

"I know. I still don't know what his plan is, in relation to everything going on with Itex. I guess we'll just have to see."

Fang looked at me, waiting to hear what else I had to say.

I troubled my lip between my teeth, watching him. After a minute, he raised an eyebrow and I broke.

"I just…you know that I…"

Fang's lips quirked. He knew this was fucking hard for me, and yet he tortured me anyways. That jerk. "I know, Max. Me too."

"No," I said. Maybe a week ago that would've been okay. I would've known - or assumed - that he knew what I was trying to say.

But I'd just watched Rema lose the person who meant the most to her in the entire world. I was not about to skip my chance here, just in case. If anything bad ever happened to Fang, and I had passed this opportunity up because I had assumed he knew how I felt, I would never forgive myself.

"No, I want to say this. Because you get yourself into a lot more shitty situations than I'm comfortable with, and if I'm not there to save your ass I don't know what might happen."

Fang, who'd just poured himself a cup of coffee, set down the cup and the pot and looked at me. He looked almost amused, but I also knew that he realized I was serious. And scared. And borderline hopeless.

He stepped closer to me and grabbed my waist, tugging me closer. I felt like it was just easier to breathe when I was close to him. And when I was away from him…I was drowning.

That was probably one of the stupidest things I've ever thought.

"You wanted to tell me something," Fang reminded me after a moment, his voice soft and carnal. I resisted my instinctual nature and stopped my knees from shaking like they _so _wanted too.

It didn't matter than there was a fourteen-year-old boy behind me, snoring obnoxiously. It was Fang and me, wrapped up in our own little moment. I slid my hand up his chest and neck to cup his cheek and said, "I love you. Whatever happens, just know that."

"I know, Max," Fang assured me. He didn't need to tell me that he returned the sentiment, because that was probably the one thing I knew was completely true these days. Instead, he focused on reassuring me that he believed me; that he knew how I felt. I didn't think it was possible for him to truly understand, but he decided to one and for all expel that thought from my head. He kissed me gently, and it only lasted for a second but it was the sweetest thing I'd ever felt. "I knew before you even had a clue."

• • •

When I let myself into the hotel room at 4:06, I let my guilt take over my face and frowned at Dylan, who was sitting in the chair by the window.

"I am so sorry," I whispered. I didn't want to outright lie to him, so instead of coming up with a huge cover story, I just said, "I lost track of time."

True.

Dylan didn't press it. He shrugged. "It's okay. How are you holding up?"

I kicked off my shoes and sat down across from him in the other armchair. "Rain check on the feelings? I haven't really figured it out yet. So much has happened…" I glanced around the room, seeing Angel and her brother in one bed and Rema and Nudge in the other. Someone had sacrificed a pillow and one of the comforters for Iggy, who was lying shirtless on the floor. "I'm more worried about Rema. Did she sleep through the night?"

Dylan nodded slowly. "I took over watch at about midnight, and she only got up once around two. I think she was having a nightmare, but it didn't last long. She woke up and ran into the bathroom and got sick. I…couldn't really do much to help her."

"God," I breathed. "After what happened yesterday, I can totally understand getting sick." I mean, I'd been close to getting sick just recalling it earlier last night. You don't forgot horrible occurrences like that. No matter how much you want to. I had no doubt that the disgust and revulsion were ten-times more horrific for Rema.

"She went back to sleep after that," Dylan said.

"Well, I've got watch now. I'm sorry I'm late. You can get some rest now - we won't be leaving until later into the morning."

Dylan nodded. He probably would've fought me, but he loked exhausted. I was guessing that my short nap with Fang and flight back into Iowa had given me a pretty alert appearance. He stood up from his chair and moved across the room, grabbing a pillow that had made it's way to the ground. He laid down near Iggy's feet, in front of the dresser that held the TV.

I sat back in the armchair and rolled my neck, trying to loosen the kink I'd developed sleeping in such an awkward position with Fang. While I sat there, I tried to figure out what our next steps would be. The most logical approach would be to head to Chicago and check out the Itex building. That way we'd at least know the geographical details. Maybe then we'd be able to plan a break in.

The thought of every branch around the world having this deadly poison still worried the hell out of me. I wasn't sure how I was going to manage to get every single branch to halt the By-Half Plan. Worst case scenario, Itex began the plan the minute we broke in. If that happened, our only chance would be to find the cure and mass produce it, fast.

Best case scenario…

Yeah, I was still working on that.

I was still crazy worried about Rema. Was she going to leave us now that Davy had died? Was she going to get depressed and become a liability to the group? I mean, she'd already been pretty down-in-the-dumps, but now this happened?

God, why did I let this happen?

They were all my responsibility. When those Erasers had grabbed Davy, I should've been across the field, taking them both apart limb-from-limb before they could even harm a hair on his head. Instead…

I closed my eyes. For the next hour or two, I tried not to tell myself how I should have done it differently. Instead, I focused on making sure nothing like that ever happened again.

Around six thirty, Nudge was the first one awake. If that isn't surprising enough for you, get this: She was completely _silent _as she sat down beside me.

"Morning," I said softly. She tugged her chair over next to me and curled up in it, resting her head on my shoulder.

"Morning," Nudge whispered. "Did you get any sleep?"

I sighed. "A bit. You okay?"

Nudge took in a deep breath. I glanced down at her out of the corner of my eye and saw her twisting a piece of her fluffy hair between her fingers.

"It's not fair, you know? Rema didn't deserve this. Davy didn't…deserve to die."

"I know," I said, closing my eyes. "Nothing's fair."

"I just keep thinking…was there something we should've done differently? Slept at a different hotel? Left an hour earlier?"

"None of that was your fault," I said softly. "Those were my mistakes."

Nudge shook her head, sitting up. Her eyes were wide. "Max, it's not your fault. It's none of our faults. I just wish…I just wish we had some say in how our lives panned out, you know? Ever since we escaped the School with Jeb, it's always felt as if…as if we don't have any control over our own destinies."

I hated that she was right. I hated that Nudge, a twelve-year-old preteen, felt so hopeless about life. She should've been…carefree and happy and hopeful for the future. She should've been spending her days dreaming about her future and planning a wonderful life. Instead, she was living this hellish life, and there was nothing she or I or anyone could do about it.

I hated that these kids had to do this. I _hated _it.

And Nudge was right, kind of. My destiny was planned before I was even born. My destiny was set in stone before I was. It could have just as easily been someone's else job to save the world, but by some twist of fate, I'd been the successful recombinant life form. I'd been the healthy bird-kid. The promising experiment. I'd been built for my destiny, and I couldn't change that now. It was the same for the others.

"There's more than just defeating Itex, Nudge. When it's all over…you can be whatever you want to be. You can control your entire future. We just need to get rid of Itex, first."

Nudge let out a breath, staring out the window. "What's the plan?"

I picked at my nail, glancing around the room. "I don't know yet."

Nudge smiled unsuspectingly at me. I was taken aback by her grin. In a second, she went from smiling to full out laughing, covering her mouth as she tried to silence her giggles so she didn't wake anyone else. I watched her laugh, closing her eyes and leaning her head back on the chair's cushion. I wondered if I should worry.

"What's funny?" I asked, laughing a little at the sight of her.

"It's just…a year ago, your answer would've been, 'There's always a plan, Nudge. Don't worry. We'll figure it out.' I guess it's just funny how things change."

I smiled at her, feeling my heart ache. "Yeah," I said. "Things change."

Nudge's expression softened. "What do you think Fang's doing?"

I treaded lightly with this question. Just because Fang and I had twisted the truth a bit and told them that he left me, I wasn't going to start spinning elaborate stories about how I hated him and didn't care if he was dead in a ditch. It would be unrealistic, anyways, and I'm sure Nudge would see right through that. Instead, I looked at her and shrugged.

"I don't know. I just hope he's okay."

Nudge brought her legs up and wrapped her arms around them, resting her chin on her knees. "Aren't you angry with him?"

I stared outside at the sky, which was turning a hundred different shades of pink. A brand new day.

"Doesn't matter," I said, trying my hardest not to lie. "I still don't want him to get hurt. One day he's going to come back, and we're going to take him back. And I hope he comes back in one piece."

Nudge was staring at me with a shocked expression. "Ugh," she said, turning her head to stare outside, like me. "How is it that the two most emotionally-inept people in the world ended up having the _cutest _love story ever? Unfair."

I smiled, closing my eyes and letting my head lean back against the chair. "Nothing's fair, Nudge."

And that was probably the truest thing I'd ever said.

**A/N: I'm surprisingly happy with the outcome of this chapter. What about you? **

**Sneak Peek of Chapter 12: **_"He was using you as a catalyst and you didn't even know it."_

**How many reviews can we get for chapter 12?**


	12. Chapter 12

**Update: **2/04/14 5:30 PM

**A/N: My sincerest apologies. **

**First excuse: I had exactly nine days of school in the month of January due to winter weather. Snow storms, negative twenty degrees, etc…it all really messed up our schedule for school. Now, my teachers seem to be trying to cram two months of curriculum into one month, which sucks because it's hard enough at normal pace and now I'm drowning. Also, we got out four hours early today and there are currently five inches of snow outside. JOY. For those of you that don't get snow where you live, let me tell you something. Snow is great…the first three times. But when it snows every three days, and you get weeks of school off constantly…you run out of things to do. **

**Excuse dos: I'm hitting that point in my junior year where I'm realizing just how behind I am and how much I need to get my shit together. Haven't had any time to write lately (except for the snow days; thank God for bipolar weather) and I didn't want to update until I was happy with the next few chapters because that's just how I roll. **

**Anyways, I suck. That pretty much sums it up nicely. **

**Chapter Disclaimer: I do not own Hannah Montana. Just fyi. **

**Read on!**

**P.S. This chapter is really short but since I've sucked at updating I'm probably going to post again in a few days anyways. So, no fear. **

MAX

It was a coping mechanism.

I knew how it looked. I wasn't stupid. An hour after everyone had woken up, I started encouraging them to get up and get moving. We had to continue the mission, no matter how hard it was. I knew some of the others thought it was almost unfair to Davy, but… it was my coping mechanism. Staying on task. Giving myself a goal. It was easier than thinking…_what if_?

It's natural for humans to want things to go back to normal. My only problem was, in our particular situation, normal was pretty _abnormal_. So after something totally out of left field, going "back to normal" was basically telling the others, _Hey! We're going to go risk our lives again, because that's just how we do!_

I felt like a jerk, But we couldn't sit around without being productive anymore. That wasn't going to do anything for the world - or Davy's memory.

No one protested when I said we were checking out of the hotel. Rema looked like all of her energy was going into breathing and walking, which made me rethink our next move. I'd been wanting to go to Chicago and scope out Itex, so we could get a feel for what wer were up against. Though, looking at my flock that morning, I realized we probably weren't ready to go head-to-head with the nemesis just _yet_.

The other option on the board was Gunther-Hagen. That was easier; we knew where he lived, knew where he worked, and - bonus - had a few very important questions for him. Hello? Goal, location, plan. I felt pretty good about the whole GH confrontation thing.

Except…now that we knew that he'd been associated with Itex, the fact that he'd single-handedly killed Fang kind of made me queasy. Did I want to lead my weak, broken flock into that mess?

I finally decided as I was checking out that I was going to do something I'd never done before: Let the others decide.

I. Know.

Crazy.

"Can I have your phone?"

I started and looked up. Before I could stop myself, I said, "What? Why?"

Iggy raised an eyebrow suspiciously. _Calm down, Max,_ I thought. _Iggy can't even see. It's not like you haven't been obsessively deleted your call history anyways. _

"What?" Iggy said, taken aback by my answer. I blinked.

"Um, yes. Yeah. One second."

I fumbled for my phone and quickly went into my call history, making sure it was empty just in case my life was so unlucky that Iggy's sight decided to make a sudden appearance. Now I only had to hope that Fang didn't choose this moment to call and update me.

God, I felt like I was doing something illegal.

A couple minutes later, almost all of us were gathered in the lobby and Iggy was on my phone, talking to Ella for the first time in almost a week.

"I miss you, too," Iggy said into my cell phone, closing his eyes and leaning against the wall. "So much has been going on lately, I haven't had the chance to call." Ella said something in return; something that made Iggy's lips lift into a wry smile. "I know. I know, El, I will."

"Tell Ella to say hi to Total for me," Angel begged, tugging at Iggy's arm. "He should be home from his honeymoon, by now."

Iggy nodded, relayed the message, then said, "Total says hi. He's busy watching _Project Runway_, but Ella said he'd call later."

Angel smiled.

Rema and Nudge joined the rest of us in the lobby just then, carrying their packs. I tapped Iggy's arm - it was time to cut the phone call short.

"I gotta go, Ella," Iggy said, sounding regretful. I didn't want to be intrusive, so I backed away from Ig as he ended the call and went over to the others.

Gazzy frowned past me, at Iggy. "Iggy used to help me make fun of you and Fang. Now he's even _worse_."

I ruffled his hair, smiling lightly. "I know, right? Disgusting."

"You were disgusting, too, you know," Gazzy said.

"Yeah, I know. Sorry," I said.

He shrugged, erasing a scuff on the white tile with his sneaker. "S'okay. I'd rather you and Fang were together and disgusting than apart and depressed."

I stared at Gazzy, shocked. _Really? _I thought. _I could've sworn you'd wanted it the other way around just a couple weeks ago…_

No, I was not going to hold a grudge anymore. Life was too short.

As soon as Iggy hung up with Ella, he came back over to the rest of us and handed me my cell phone. Then, we were ready to take off.

"Where we going, Max?"

"We have two options. We can hunt down Gunther-Hagen first, or we can fly to Chicago and check out Itex. What do you guys think?"

The others stared at me in shock.

"What?" I asked, taken aback by their expressions. Were they angry that I was making them jump right back into action after what had happened yesterday? I mean, I knew it was really early to brush it off, but we needed to get moving if we were going finish this mission - and avenge Davy in the process. They knew that, though, so why…

"You don't…ask us for advice…ever," Angel said softly.

"Yeah, well…I figured it couldn't hurt," I said. I pushed the door open and walked out into the bright sunlight, holding the door for the others until Dylan took it from me.

"What's up with Dr. Gunther-Hagen?" Gazzy said.

"He made the plan that we were created to prevent," I said. "The By-Half Plan. Then, he faked his own death." I snuck a glance at Dylan when I said that; he looked just as surprised as the others.

"Cool," Gazzy muttered. I raised an eyebrow.

Gazzy just shrugged. "What? It _is _kind of cool."

"He faked his death…just to relocate and make me?" Dylan asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, it really doesn't make sense when you think about it," Iggy said. "If he were going to fake his own death, the next step would've been to retire on some island or something. Not get _back _into the scientific business."

"So why would he fake his death and get out of Itex, just to come back and create Dylan?" Angel wondered. "Don't you think he had enough power where he was?"

My feet stopped moving of their own accord. The others slowed down and came to a stop, looking back at me.

"Because he _knew _we'd check into him," I said slowly. "If he showed up on his own with Dylan out of nowhere, we'd check into him. Eventually, we'd find out he was working with Itex. But if he tried his best to sever his ties with the company…"

"Then he'd be able to convince us better," Iggy filled in, his cloudy eyes full of realization. "He did it to get close to us. To convince _you_," he said, grabbing my arm, "to accept Dylan."

We all looked at Dylan. He stared back with a confused look on his face. "I don't get it."

"Dylan," Nudge said slowly. "How much time did you spend with Dr. Gunther-Hagen?"

Dylan looked affronted at what we were accusing him of, but answered anyways. "After he…created me, I stayed in his lab in Malibu for a few months, learning things."

"About what?" I asked.

"About…well, about you," he said, scratching him head. "But…"

"And why was it so important that you learn about me? Why was it so important that we take you in, Dylan?"

It took a second for us to all reach the same conclusion. When we did, Rema spoke for the first time.

"He was using you as a catalyst and you didn't even know it," she breathed.

"So, I guess that's what we're doing next, huh Max?" Gazzy said. "Hunting down Dr. Gunther-Hagen."

I frowned. "Yeah, I guess so."

I was so not psyched for this.

Iggy rubbed his forehead tiredly, obviously as not-thrilled as I was. "Well, let's drop in on our favorite diabolical scientist."

• • •

Nudge _never _should have complained about having no radio.

At the moment, the Gasman was on his third round of obscure songs I'd never heard. Nudge knew most of them and joined in, but honestly - there was a reason we didn't have a built in radio.

The peace and quiet was _nice_.

Apparently, I was the only one who thought so.

I hadn't thought our group could've gotten _more _depressed than they were the first day after Fang left, but I was wrong. The absence of Davy was tangible. Neither Dylan nor Rema had really said anything since we hit the sky. Part of Dylan's moody silence, I assumed, was because of the prospect of what Gunther-Hagen was really up to. I figured a bit of his distance from us was just his introspective side. I hoped.

I wanted to pour on the speed and get to Malibu in the next five hours. Unfortunately, I couldn't leave the others behind. In all reality, it would probably take us the rest of that day and part of the next to get to Malibu. Which sucked. It also sucked that we would be flying back west, which was just where we'd lost Davy due to the Erasers from the Seattle lab. I was hoping that getting so close to the lab again didn't put Rema at high risk.

We'd been away from Fang for almost a week now, and we'd accomplished nothing but discovering where Itex was. Which, in comparison to what the rest of the mission held in store for us, was a baby step in the right direction.

In my head, I mapped out the rest of the trip. We'd be able to get to Nevada tonight, find somewhere to sleep, then do the rest of the flying to GH's lab the next morning.

Yup, good plan.

My mastermind scheming was interrupted by the Gasman's mimicry of dubstep.

"Spare me," Iggy groaned, swooping ahead and beating his wings faster to get away from the sound. Gazzy started laughing.

"Something else, Gaz," I said. Then, in a mumble, "Anything else."

Apparently Gazzy still heard me. "Anything, Max? You asked for it."

And the Hannah Montana concert began.

**A/N: I'm disappointed with this chapter, but psyched for the next, like, five. So review!**

**Sneak Peek of Chapter 13: **_"Oh, so you and Fang will just pretend to hate each other forever?" _

**GAAAASP. Who finds out about Max and Fang's little scheme? Review to find out…**

**If I can get…meh…140 reviews I will update again in the next 24 hours (possibly tonight). **


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: OMFG you guys rock my fuzzy socks. **

**I do want to address one review, which was left by an anonymous Guest but I still think it deserves recognition. **

**So, **_**Guest**_**, I hope you are reading this: I love criticism. I really do - that's why I ask for it from you guys. And your review was probably my favorite out of all the reviews for last chapter because it kind of slapped me around a bit and told me that **_**you **_**knew I could do better and **_**I **_**knew it. And that's way true. I think I was kind of in a writing slump, and I hadn't written for days, and so when I threw that chapter together it was basically filler and yes, I agree, it was shit. You're also right that the whole change from Malibu to Miami was lazy on my part. That was horrible of me, honestly, especially because I knew about my mistake and didn't fix it. So, I went back and changed the last chapter back to Malibu. I know it's still not my best work, but hopefully you'll stick around and continue reading so you can see me try to improve. And, last but not least, I'm really glad you enjoyed my trilogy. Thanks for the advice (and wake up call). **

**Read on, lovelies. **

MAX

The night was rough.

Dylan and I went to get food after we found a not-too-sketchy motel in southern Nevada to crash in. As we were in line at the fast food place, I tried to talk to him about…well, anything really. Here's how _that _went:

_I glanced at Dylan in what I thought was a inconspicuous manner for about the billionth time. I started whistling. Dylan was usually not this silent around me. Pensive, sure. Watchful, always. But reserved and sad and _this_? Nope. _

_Plus, if you forgot who I was, let me remind you that I am Maximum Ride, incapable of most emotions. That includes helping others with their emotions. I mean, I could offer to let Dylan punch me, but I didn't think that would really help in this situation. He'd probably adamantly refuse, anyways, because he's got some gentlemanly stick up his ass._

_Look, I get it, okay? We all feel like a part of us was kind of torn out and stomped into the dirt a couple days ago. But…I was starting to worry about the others; Dylan and Rema especially. _

_So, that's why I was glancing at Dylan, willing _him _to spark up a conversation with _me_. That way, I wasn't being insensitive. _

"_Just spit it out, Max." _

_I turned to face the menu boards, feeling embarrassed. Note to self: Work on discreetness. _

"_I just…Are you okay?" _

_Dylan immediately changed his facial expression from mopey to optimistic. "I'm good, Max. Serious."_

_I frowned. "You're a bad liar," I muttered, stepping forward in line behind the woman in front of us who was trying to control both her kids at once. _

_Dylan stepped up next to me. "I've only had a few months to practice."_

_I grinned. Dylan had been certainly learning how to be a real person over the past few months. And, since he was living with us, his sarcasm was probably his most flourishing feature. _

"_I don't want you to worry about me," Dylan admitted. _

"_I worry about all of you," I said. "Whether you want me to or not."_

"_Well, try and channel some of the worry meant for me towards Rema," Dylan said, looking down at me. "She's not doing so good, Max."_

"_I know," I said. "But neither are you. You and Davy were bonding."_

"_I knew Davy for a couple days. And I'm not saying that he didn't mean anything to me, because he was a cool kid and I really liked him. And even if I hadn't, he still wouldn't have deserved what he got. So, yeah. I'm shaken up about it. We all are," Dylan said, breathing out with his last sentence. "But…that was Rema's _brother_. She lost more than any of us."_

_I let out a slow breath, then looked sideways at him. "Well, you suck at lying. But you're a lot more successful in feelings than I am."_

"_Yeah, I am."_

_My stomach twisted after he said that, even though I was pretty sure it was supposed to be a joke. I mean, we could pretend all we wanted, but Gunther-Hagen had programmed Dylan to love me. And, as much as I wanted to resent Dylan for that, I couldn't. Because it wasn't his fault. And he knew I loved Fang, which must've been hell for him. _

_So, we both kept to ourselves after that and ordered our food. Then we flew back to the motel room the same way we'd gone to get food: in silence. _

Anyways, as soon as we got back, the others informed Dylan and I that Rema had taken off. She'd left with her backpack and half of the stolen money, so none of us could be for sure if she was coming back or not. Apparently she'd flown off without a word to anyone. The thought of never seeing Rema again either kind of put everyone in a glum mood, up until bedtime.

I took first watch. Rema came back just as I was about to wake Iggy up for his watch. She knocked on the motel room door, and as soon as I peeked through the peephole (though I was pretty sure Erasers wouldn't knock), I threw the door open and pulled her inside.

"You alright?" I asked softly.

Rema nodded. "I'm fine. I just needed some time alone."

_Come on, Max. Come up with something comforting and wise to say. Hurry up. Rema needs you. _

"Um…You're bunking with Nudge," I said lamely, pointing to the half-empty queen size bed across the small motel room.

_Great job, loser. Seriously. _

Rema smiled lightly. "Thanks. Night."

She shuffled across the gunky carpet floor and dropped her backpack. She pushed off her sneakers and climbed into the bed next to Nudge. On the other double bed was Angel and Gazzy. Dylan and Iggy were on the pull-out couch. After Rema shut her eyes, I went over to Iggy and woke him up for his watch.

This left me to sleep next to Dylan, which I was wary about, but, whatever. We were on the run, you know? No time to get picky about sleeping arrangements. I mean, we all slept piled in one big heap before, and that had never been a problem before. And when I say one big heap, I don't mean a dog pile. I mean we all invaded each others' personal space in order to stay warm in a cave in the middle of November. I mean curled up so tightly we were bumping elbows with at least four other people. That kind of _big heap_. The tangle-of-limbs big heap.

Still, when I laid down on the other side of the pull-out couch, I took my pillow and shoved it between us, right up against Dylan's back. Then I rolled over and curled up on my side, tucking my rolled-up sweatshirt under my head. That way, neither of us would do anything awkwardly invasive during the night. Just precautionary measures.

See? Sometimes, I have good ideas.

Around five AM, during Dylan's watch, my phone started ringing obnoxiously. I snapped awake at the sound, but when I sat up Dylan was already reaching for it.

"No! I got it!" I cried, rushing across the room. Dylan looked at me surprised. I dove towards my backpack and scooped up my phone, pressing _Answer_. I shot Dylan a look. He'd been pretty close to my phone, had he seen the caller ID?

"Hello?" I answered breathlessly.

"Hello, Max."

I let out a breath of relief. Apparently, _I _hadn't seen the caller ID.

"Mom?" I said. Dylan cocked an eyebrow at my surprised tone. I quickly covered with, "I was expecting Ella. She said she'd call me."

_Damn, Max. Your cover-ups suck, _I thought to myself.

"Why don't you go somewhere private so we can talk?"

My blood went cold at that. My mind jumped to conclusions. Was someone there, threatening her? Were they about to use my mother against me again? Were she and Ella in trouble?

I nodded my head towards the door and Dylan nodded. I grabbed my hoodie off the pull-out couch and slipped it on, heading outside. It was still relatively dark outside, but it wasn't too cold, thankfully. As soon as the door shut, I started walking away from the motel door and towards the parking lot to put some distance between myself and the super-hearing beings.

"Mom? Are you alright?"

"Jeb's here," she said, almost nonchalantly.

"_Okay_?"

"He told me what you and Fang did."

Well. That had not been what I was expecting.

I chewed my lip nervously. "Well, Mom-"

"I hope you know what you're doing, Max," she said softly. "I understand that you think this was for the best, and maybe it was, but - have you even thought about how the flock will react when they find out it was all a lie that you and Fang put together to get them back on track?"

I sighed, shoving the hand that wasn't holding my phone to my ear into my pocket. "They don't have to find out."

"Oh, so you and Fang will just pretend to hate each other forever?"

"No, I just-"

"Max," my mom said. "I don't want you or the others to get hurt by this, but it's already been done so I can't really stop you. I just wanted to call and let you know that I know what's going on, but I also am not going to tell anyone - and that includes Ella."

"Thanks. Fang and I…we'll figure it out after the mission."

It was Mom's turn to sigh. "Speaking of, Jeb wants to talk to you."

I reluctantly allowed her to put him on the line.

"Max?"

"Yes," I said warily.

"Did you figure anything out about the By-Half Plan?"

"Jeb, you're in my head. Obviously, you know what I know."

Jeb chuckled. "Maximum, despite what you may think, I do not sit around rifling through your thoughts all day."

Well, then. He said that as if it _wouldn't _be entertaining. Pfft. "Did you know Gunther-Hagen had previously worked as the head scientist at Itex?

Jeb immediately answered with, "_What_?"

So, I was going to guess that was a _no_.

"He created the By-Half Plan himself," I said slowly. "How did you not know this? Doesn't anyone do background checks anymore?"

Jeb seemed very troubled by this information, with good reason. "It's not like ITMS actually hired him," he said carefully. "He was just an associate. He was never apart of the company. I mean, of course he heard all of our brainstorming of way to thwart the By-Half Plan….oh, God."

"Yeah, the whole situation is pretty bad."

"The whole situation was _horrible_, and now it's a _nightmare_," Jeb said miserably. "Did Dylan know about any of this? Is Hans using him as a spy or something?"

"If Dylan knows about it, he's a darn good actor," I said, nibbling on my thumbnail. "So far he seems to be on our side and claims that Gunther-Hagen never mentioned any of his evil plans to him."

"It's probably true. Hans is a very secretive person when it comes to his own agenda."

"Yeah, well…we're about to blow those secrets wide open," I said. "We're heading to his lab in Malibu tonight."

"Max-"

"No. I know what I'm doing." _I think. _

"Max, Dr. Hans is a very dangerous man. Especially now that you've told me he works for Itex. Don't forget he's the man who tried to turn Angel onto the bad side, killed Fang, and threw Dylan into the mix."

I frowned. Jeb was right, which kind of ruffled my feathers a bit. I mean, Dr. GH _had _tried to convert Angel to the dark side…and he'd almost succeeded. Then he'd lethally injected Fang, which made me antsy. Who knew how easily he could do that again? Who knew if adrenaline would be miraculously on hand the next time? And last, he had created Dylan. He motives were kind of unclear to me on the front, unless it was to break Fang and I up and somehow disband the flock that way. If I had accepted Dylan the way Hans had hoped, maybe we all would've fallen apart like he wanted. And maybe then he'd thought the others would help _him _hurt _me_.

It was a lot to risk. But…

"It's the most logical next step. We need Hans' weakness, and we need to know his motives."

Jeb sighed. "So your plan is to ask him face-to-face?"

"I don't really have him on speed-dial."

Jeb paused. "Be careful, Max. I trust that you know what your doing. We'll be working on things from this end, trying to infiltrate the company and all."

"Fine," I sighed. As Jeb started to speak, I said, "Oh, and Jeb?"

"Yes?"

"Low blow, ratting me out to Mom like that. Think that was completely necessary?"

I hung up.

• • •

I was surprised when my stomach flopped at the sight of Dr. Gunther-Hagen's house. I mean, I hadn't thought the sight of his impressive beach house, complete with the terrace and pool and all kinds of fancy crap, would incite any feeling in me but envy. I mean, who doesn't want a pool? Right.

Unfortunately, the Malibu beach house brought back a gut-wrenching sense of fear that I struggled to hide. All I kept seeing was Fang on that damn operating table…

_Never _would be too soon to see that again. I'd rather gouge my eyes out. Or eat a live sea turtle. Or cut off my wings and sell them on the black market.

Okay, wait. That would probably make me a lot of cash.

_Focus_.

I think it's really a problem that the supposed savior of the world has attention problems.

_Focus, Max_.

Yup. Gotcha.

"Okay," I said, hovering in place over the huge house/center of all things evil. "Any ideas?"

"We could fly through those bay windows," Nudge said, not sounding enthusiastic. Yeah, not the best option. Cuts and bruises, not to mention ruining perfectly nice clothes. And there's nothing stealthy about shattering a bunch of huge windows.

"What if we blew up the west side of the house and snuck in through the explosion?"

I glanced at the Gasman. Somehow, he'd managed to come up with a more dangerous, more obvious idea than Nudge. Give the kid a prize.

"Um, let's think of something that won't make going into the building a safety hazard.

"We could always pick the locks, right?" Rema said. "Iggy's got some weird lock mojo going on."

"As much as I love giving Iggy's lock mojo a purpose other than violating my privacy," I said, "I think we need a different approach."

"Can we just knock on the door?" Angel offered.

I looked at her. Then I glanced at the others. Those who'd offered other suggestions looked bored with the idea of not wreaking havoc, but Dylan seemed down. Of course. I sighed.

"Might as well try that first, right?"

"Wait, Max," Nudge said. "What exactly is our plan here?"

"We're going in, acting like he's our best bud. Then hopefully we can snoop. If he doesn't look like he's going to give us any space to go through his stuff, we'll confront him." I turned my head towards the boys. "You guys got bombs?"

They nodded; Iggy snorted as if that was such a ridiculous question.

"Good," I said. "That's our back-up."

I was about to fold in my wings when I decided to add something. "One more thing," I said, and they all turned to wait for my instruction. "Do not eat or drink anything he gives you. And for God's sake, stay away from any _needles_."

• • •

Hansy was happy to see us. As kind of a last-minute decision, I grabbed Dylan's hand as Gunther-Hagen opened his door. When he noticed, his face split into a satisfied smile, and I knew it had been a good move.

"Max! Dylan!" Hans pulled us into his house, holding the door open for the others to trail in. He greeted them all with a smile, and then turned back to me. "It's so wonderful seeing you all!"

"Yeah, real great," I said, trying to sound as sincere as possible. I saw Nudge and Rema slowly moving across the room behind him, and Iggy and the Gasman were headed towards the door that led into the lab in the basement. I hoped none of them tried to make a move yet, or else we'd be busted before we even started. "We were just trying to figure out what exactly you think we should do next. You see, Jeb has been trying to get us to work for him, but it's not really the direction we want to go in."

Hans clapped his hands together, "Well, let's sit and chat!" Iggy reached for the basement door behind Gunther-Hagen as Angel, Dylan and I moved to sit on one of the leather couches.

"Wait just one second!" Hans exclaimed, and everyone froze. "I'll go make some drinks."

I let out an audible breath as he walked away through a doorway, and the others looked at me, relief obvious on their faces. I motioned for them to get moving, and the boys slipped downstairs. Rema and Nudge ran up a flight of steps almost silently.

As soon as Hans returned with a tray of drinks, he glanced around. "Where are the others?"

Dylan smiled brightly. "They wanted to explore the house. It's like a museum in here, they were a bit excited to see the rest. Hope that's not a problem."

_Go Dylan_, I thought.

Hans smiled. "Of course. So, what exactly has Jeb been pushing you to do?"

We needed to tread lightly here.

"He's intent on getting Max to work for ITMS, almost like a spy," Angel said with complete sincerity. "He's very persistent."

"But we decided it was best to check into all our options, and I remember you telling me that you were interested in a partnership?"

"Yes, very interested," Hans said slowly, nodding. He poured himself a glass of lemonade and sipped it carefully. "Obviously you know that your cooperation in any corporation in the science world is truly coveted."

I smiled tightly. "I've been told."

"Well, they _should _tell you just how messy it can be getting mixed up with the politics of scientific exploration," Hans said seriously. "You need someone who knows what he's doing."

I was dying to blurt out, _You mean someone like the head of Itex? _But I bit my tongue._ Not yet._

"Yes, I guess that's true."

" Fortunately, I've been in this business for quite awhile. I'm sure you and I can work something out, Max."

My heart was hammering. "I think that would be a good idea."

Hans nodded, smiling. "One moment," he said. "I'll just have to go retrieve some things from my office."

I held my breath as he stood, but let it out as soon as he turned down the hallway. Thank God he wasn't going up or downstairs. Otherwise, he'd catch us red handed.

My cell phone started vibrating in my pocket, and I chewed on my lip. Fang usually waited to call me until nighttime. It could be Mom…or Jeb. Either way, I didn't want to ignore them if they had any information.

"Distract him, tell him I went to the bathroom or something," I said to Dylan and Angel.

They nodded. Neither of them had touched their drinks. Good.

I stood and stepped into the hallway leading in the opposite direction of where Hans had disappeared. When I looked down at the caller ID, I saw Fang's name.

I pressed _Answer_. "I can't talk right now," I breathed.

"Max, are you at Gunther-Hagen's?"

"…Yes," I said slowly. "Have you been talking to Jeb?"

"Get the hell out of there," Fang said. "He knows what's going on. He's got a tracker in Dylan, kind of like what your chip was once Itex hacked into it. Except he's been monitoring conversations, not locations. I don't know how, or for how long, but you guys are in trouble. Get out."

My breath froze in my throat. "How do you know?"

"Damn it, Max! We can talk about it later! If you don't get out of there, who knows what he'll do!"

"Okay, okay," I said, walking a bit further down the hall. "Thanks. I'll call you later."

As soon as I hung up, I spun around, ready to tell Dylan and Angel that we were going to do a U and A.

And I came face-to-face with Dr. Gunther-Hagen.

He yanked my phone away from me, then grabbed my wrist and tugged me close to him. He was way stronger than he looked. Like, super human strong.

"I hate to do this, Max," Dr. Hans said. "But it is necessary."

Then he jabbed a needle into my neck.

**A/N: Whew…tough break. **

**Sneak Peek for chapter 14: **_I twisted my fingers into his blonde hair and watched his blue eyes flutter closed. And then we kissed for what seemed like forever._

**Peace out, homies. **


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: AHHHH. I think it's safe to say that you all **_**freakedthefreakout**_** when I gave that little sneak peek. Let me just say that, despite your guesses, I think you'll all be thoroughly...surprised!**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

MAX

We were locked in crates, separately. They were big enough to hold at least three of us, tall enough for me to kneel and only have to duck my head a few inches. The bottom was hard plastic and the sides and top were black metal bars. Maybe it was because I was bigger, older, or maybe because these were different cages - but I couldn't fit my hand through the slots between the bars anymore. I wondered if any of us could.

I could look around the room and see all the others clearly. So clearly that I noticed one of us was missing - Rema. God, what if they'd…No. Worrying about the unknown right now was not going to fix anything. I needed to focus on getting us out of this place.

The looks on the others' faces ranged from anger to exhaustion. The only one that stood out was Dylan; he stared back at me with ferocious determination. He looked wound tight, sitting tensely in the corner of his crate, tapping his foot rhythmically. There was one experiment in a crate beside me that was not apart of the flock. He was facing away from me. I decided for now to ignore him.

"Sit tight," I said, not having much more of a plan. "The next time anyone comes in here, we're raising hell."

The experiment to my left shifted, raising his head to look at me. I couldn't see him very well.

"Max?"

I leaned back, my head throbbing. I tried not to let it show that it shocked me that he knew my name. "Oh, so you've heard of me," I drawled tiredly.

Right after the words left my mouth, I recognized him. I tried to hide my relief. His eyebrows lifted in mischievous amusement, and for a moment I wondered if he just looked younger than he was.

"Of course," he said back, waving his hand casually. "Fang doesn't talk much, but he sure told me quite a bit about you."

My eyes widened a bit, warning him to keep his mouth shut. Nudge sat forward in her crate.

"Fang? Our Fang?"

"How many Fangs could there be, Nudge?" Iggy mumbled sarcastically.

Nudge ignored him, staring at Brock intensely. "You know Fang? Where is he? Is he okay?"

Brock slumped against the bars of his cage. "Yeah, I know 'im. Dunno where he is, though. We got separated in the fight. Been here almost a week. Name's Brock, by the way."

A week? I'd heard from Fang at Hans' house. That didn't add up.

"How long have you been hanging with Fang?" Iggy asked, not unkindly.

"Since he busted me out of the lab in Wisconsin," Brock said. "He said he was starting to see that the only reason they'd let me escape was because I annoyed the shit out of them." Brock grinned slightly in the darkness. "I like to think he secretly enjoyed my company."

"Yeah, we'd all like to think that," Gazzy mumbled. He must've felt replaced. Fang had left us all and found this new kid. A new kid who was now claiming to be best friends with Fang. I frowned.

"So, you haven't seen him since you got kidnapped?" Nudge pressed.

"Nope," Brock said.

"I hope he's alright," Nudge mumbled, sinking back against the wall of her cage.

I chewed on my lip. I felt like I needed to give them all a pep talk, but before I could formulate a good opening, the door to the storage room opened and two men came into the room.

They weren't Erasers - I knew that much immediately. Whatever these guys were, it was a different kind of mutation besides DNA splicing. They looked human; almost too human. They looked too big, too buff to be normal guys off the street, and something about their look made my stomach queasy.

Without a word, one leant down and started to unlock my cage. The other stopped him before he could open the door, though.

"Better behave, _Max_," he sneered, as if the word was an insult instead of my name. "Or else we've got ways of enforcing the rules."

The man who'd been about to open my cage smacked a baton against his palm, smirking.

"A stick," I said. "I'm horrified."

He smacked the stick down on the bars of Angel's cage, making her flinch and shrink back.

"You should be."

I frowned. "Where's Rema?" I demanded, dreading their answer.

"You won't be seeing her again."

Nudge whimpered, closing her eyes. _Damn it_. I gritted my teeth. I could tell they weren't messing around. Shooting the others a quick glance, I leaned forward and raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

Smirking, the one with the baton backed off and let his friend unlock my cage. I crawled out and straightened. They both immediately grabbed my arms. I choked down a snide remark.

"Be a good little girl, now," The taller one hissed in my ear. His friend raked his fingers down my arm, making my skin crawl.

"Think we'll get to play with this one?" he whispered, deliberately loud enough for me to hear.

"Doubt we'll get permission," his friend responded. The teasing tone in his voice made me think they didn't plan on asking for it. I took a deep breath and tried to control myself.

They dragged me down the hall, into an elevator. We rode up three floors, then got off. This floor looked more like an office building than a lab. The elevator doors opened up to a wall with a map of the floor in front of us. The two men turned me toward the left and I was steered roughly into one of the doors at the end of the hall.

A group of scientists stood in the room. It looked like a conference room, almost, with a table and a line of chairs on one side. The other side had only one seat. Guess who's seat that was?

The men forced me down into the chair and bound my hands behind my back. One of them brushed his hand over my face, and I almost spit at him. What was with these guys and personal space?

The scientists in the room all turned to look at me. All but one took seats across from me. Two men and one woman sat across from me, their eyes lit with the sick curiosity that only a scientist could muster. The last scientist, a man, stood in the back of the room, his eyes holding a different kind of stare. I watched him, seeing the way he examined me with a blank look. His hair was dirty blonde and his eyes were light blue, full of anything _but _science. I shifted, my heart accelerating under his gaze.

The man in the middle across from me cut right to the chase. "We're looking for your friend Fang."

It bothered me that they used our names. Sometimes, when they used experiment numbers or pet names like "lab rat" or "freak", it was easier to distance ourselves. When they didn't know our names, it was easier to see the line between good and bad; bird kid and scientist. Now, they were at least pretending to be working on our side, and it was infuriating as all get out.

I almost said I had no idea who they were talking about - Fang who? - but the woman slid a picture of us onto the table and I felt my face flush. Fang and I, when we'd snuck away from Total and Akila's wedding.

One of the guards whistled. "Looks like she's a fun one." He and his buddy laughed until one of the scientists silenced them with a stern look.

Of course they'd been watching us! I wondered how long ago they'd starting tracking us. The School had tracked us, too, but obviously with different motivations. Itex had kept tabs on us solely to stay one step ahead.

My skin prickled at the thought of one of the scientists being there when Fang and I had our time together in the woods. One of the _guards _being there.

"That's a great picture," I said through gritted teeth. "Can I have a copy?"

The woman smiled tightly. "Max, we aren't stupid. We know everything. As we speak, the scientists in charge of your mission are being…otherwise _taken care of_." The guards on either side of me snickered. "Now, in order to proceed with protocol, we need to find the last member of your flock."

"Well, if you don't know where he is, that makes two of us," I said, glancing at the blonde man against the back wall of the room. "He ditched. He's as good as dead to us."

"You'll all be as good as dead, once we find him," one of the guards taunted.

"That's enough, Franklin," one of the men said authoritatively. He shot me a cursory glance. "If she's going to be difficult, fine. We knew this about her already."

"Yes," the woman said. "We've prepared accordingly. Maybe after a session with _them _you'll be ready to share."

I glared with fierce hatred.

The man in the middle raised his hand without looking back. His demand was directed to the man against the back wall, who'd been watching silently.

"Escort our guest to testing room seven-twenty. The session starts in ten minutes."

• • •

"What were you doing in there?" he hissed. We had stepped off the elevator seconds ago, and now we were on the fourth floor. Room seven-twenty was a few doors down to my right. The blonde scientist took my arm and dragged me in the opposite direction, taking me into a room labeled _Preparation Lab B603._ "You can't behave like that," he said with frustration. "They're different here. They don't mess around."

I spun around and stared up at him, waiting for him to calm down. Did he _seriously _just tell me how to behave? Really?

He sighed, his hand dragging down one side of his face. "Did they hurt you?"

I shook my head. No, they hadn't. They'd talked about it, but talking about it and doing it were two different things. "The guards are dicks."

"Don't tempt them," he said, moving closer. "This isn't the School. They aren't watched constantly. And here, they only get in trouble if they get caught."

"I can handle a fight," I said, stung.

He stepped closer to me and my heart thumped loud enough for both of us to here. His blonde hair grazed my forehead as he bent down. His blue eyes sparkled.

"They aren't going to _fight _you," he whispered. After a second, his jaw clenched and he added, "They do worse things here."

_Think we'll get to play with this one? _

He could see the fury in my eyes. He reached up and tentatively brushed back my mud-clumped hair. His eyes searched my face. I couldn't stop staring at his bright blue eyes.

"I'm fine," I assured again, staring back into the foreign orbs. Convinced, he moved his hands down and grasped my hips. He sat me up on the counter and stepped between my legs.

"This, off," I muttered, shoving at the lapels of his white coat. As soon as the pristine coat hit the tile, his lips were on mine, frantic and desperate. I twisted my fingers into his blonde hair and watch his blue eyes flutter closed. And then we kissed for what seemed like forever, our lips pushing and pulling, giving and taking. The stress and worry in my chest completely unraveled while he kissed me. His fingers weaved into my knotted hair and my arms snaked around his shoulders, pulling him into me.

I pulled my lips away slowly, breathing heavily. I opened my eyes to see his still closed.

"Open your eyes," I demanded breathlessly.

He slowly opened them, staring into my eyes. I lifted my hand and gently placed my thumb over his pupil. He didn't flinch. I dragged my thumb aside and beneath it, the colored contact move out of the way, revealing his dark black eyes. The ones I knew better than my own.

I smirked at him. "Tell me it's a wig."

Fang reached up and fisted his hair, giving it a tug. "Nope," he said. "Wash-out dye."

"You look like a Ken doll," I murmured, and we both thought of the day of Total and Akila's wedding, when he'd called me Barbie.

"What a match," he said.

"Genius," I breathed. "Hiding right under their noses."

Fang lifted one of his shoulders in a casual shrug. "The farther I got from you, the smarter I became."

I rolled my eyes. "Hilarious." Then, under my breath, I added, "Whitecoat."

Fang leaned close to me, his lips against my collarbone. "Lab rat."

"So, you infiltrated the system," I said, pushing him back so I could think. "Kudos. Now what?"

"You're the leader," Fang said, as if it were obvious. His fingers were trailing up and down my arm, and it was incredibly hard to focus on making a plan.

"Do they trust you?"

Fang made a noncommittal noise, his lips still trained on the skin at the nape of my neck. "Enough. They trust me enough to escort you around, which means they don't suspect anything. They trust me enough to tell me the schedule for you."

I wanted to make a joke about Fang being an escort, but I shook the thought out of my head and focused. Harder than it looked. I raised an eyebrow. "And what's my schedule, _Doctor_?"

"Today and tomorrow, they want to interrogate. If you comply, they won't hurt you. Then, once they've gotten their answers…tests."

"Tests. Great," I breathed. "Okay. So, we stay here a couple days. You gain as much trust as you can. We make some kind of kickass plan and bust the hell out of here. Oh, and completely destroy Itex in the process of saving our own hides."

"Awesome plan," Fang said sarcastically. I thumped him. He looked at me seriously. "You heard them; don't give them answers, and you get tortured until you cave. There's _no _win for us. You guys need to escape and I'll stay and figure things out from in here."

"I'm the leader, remember?" I spat. "Besides, we're not leaving you behind. What if they discover who you are?"

"When they said proceed with protocol, they didn't just mean test us and torture us. They're getting rid of us. It's smarter for us not to all be in the same place. If they discover who I am, at least you guys won't be here."

"There's too many holes," I said softly. "They're going to hold us for at least two days without doing anything, so we'll plan in those two days. Then, after, we'll figure out a way to break out. Until then, I give them false leads."

We watched each other in silence. I wished there was an easier way to do this, but for now, this was the plan.

"Come on," Fang said finally.

"Are you going to get in trouble for not bringing me to the right room?"

Fang shook his head, his hand freezing over the doorknob. "The only people who know I didn't take you there are the guards, and it's their word against mine. Now," Fang said quietly, "play along."

He jerked the door open and grabbed my arm, escorting me down the hall. The two guards, Franklin and what's-his-name, saw Fang and I.

"D'you take care of her?" Franklin asked, grinning.

"Is it your business, Franklin?" Fang asked with a cold authority. "She's off limits. If either of you so much as look at her the wrong way, more than your job will be on the line."

"Damn," the other man said. "I was really looking forward to this one."

Fang dragged me down the hall, away from them, towards the elevator. Once the doors shut, he still didn't say a word. I opened my mouth to speak but Fang dug his fingers into my bicep. When I looked at him, he was staring at one corner of the ceiling.

A camera. There must have not been any cameras in the prep room he took me to. I let out a breath, watching the floors tick by.

We got off the elevator eventually and walked down a hallway with windows looking into various rooms. On most of the doors was the label _Analysis and Development. _I tried not to look into each room - I was a bit afraid of everything I'd see - but I couldn't help it. There were young kids with different DNA combinations, chemicals bubbling, experiments displaying powers and such for scientists. Towards the end of the hall, I came to a halt, staring into one of the rooms. A look of complete horror came across my face.

"Rema!"

My first feeling was relief - she was alive!

And then…I stared into the window, wishing it wasn't true. Wishing she, at least, had escaped and been free. Wishing that the girl I was looking at wasn't really her.

"That's her?" Fang whispered. "The girl you saved?"

I nodded, unable of speech. Oh, God.

Inside the room, Rema was sitting on a thin mattress, hooked up to a bunch of machines. Three scientists crowded around her, taking notes on her.

Her, and her stomach. There was a barely noticeable bulge, but they had little plastic circles stuck to her bare stomach and looked to be doing an ultrasound, probably trying to find the heartbeat.

"Rema," I breathed. "God, Fang, she's _our _age. She's _pregnant_?"

Fang pulled me away from the window, nodding slightly.

"Did the guards…?" I demanded, but choked on the rest of my question. I looked at him meaningfully, furious at the thought.

Fang shook his head. "She showed up here that way."

"_What_?"

Fang's hand clenched around my arm again. I guess we were talking too much.

Rema didn't look too far along. I mean, I hadn't had much experience with pregnant women, but I knew it usually took a while for the mother to start showing. Usually a couple months, but it varied for different women. Suddenly, another thought struck me: Rema had to have _already _been pregnant when we met her.

I wondered if she'd known.

Duh, Max.

Of course she'd known. The constant bathroom breaks? Looking sick all the time? Buying her own clothes while shopping?

It was all coming together. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed.

Stunned, I let Fang drag me the rest of the way towards the door. We couldn't talk to each other anymore, no matter how many burning questions I had. Fang squeezed my bicep, silently calming my nerves a bit. Then, he opened the door and pushed me in. I got into my cage silently, and he bent down to lock it. His face was so close to the cage I could feel his breath on my face.

"We'll talk later."

I nodded and sat back in my cage, still reeling in shock at what I'd seen. What they were doing to Rema was unforgivable…we needed to get her out of there.

"Max? Are you okay?" Nudge asked, watching Fang suspiciously. It didn't look as if any of them recognized him, but maybe that was because of the dim lighting and the disguise.

"Rema's alive," I said quietly. _And pregnant. _

"What?" Angel said, sitting forward in her cage. I grimaced. God, I needed to keep a firmer grip on my thoughts. "How did _that _happen?"

"How did what happen?" Iggy asked.

"Rema's pregnant," Angel said, causing everyone to gasp in shock.

"But-" Nudge began.

I shoved the mental block up in my mind and avoided eye contact with Angel. Then, I said slowly, "Marcus."

Everyone was quiet for a long time. Finally, Dylan broke the silence, leaning forward in his cage to look at me.

"What now?"

I wish I had an answer.

**A/N: Oh, shoot. How do y'all feel about Fang being on the inside? Pretending to be a bad guy? I personally enjoy the idea immensely, mostly because you know he's plotting against all of those evil bastards in his head - Ha!**

**No sneak peek this time :/ Yell at me in a review!**


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